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iYCHOLOGY OF 
ADOLESCENCE 



LEIGH MUDGE 



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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
EARLY ADOLESCENCE 



By 
E. LEIGH MUDGE 



A Textbook in Teacher Training, conforming to 
the standard, outlined and approved by the Sunday 
School Council of Evangelical Denominations. 

THIRD YEAR SPECIALIZATION SERIES 



Printed for 

THE TEACHER TRAINING PUBLISHING 

ASSOCIATION 

by 

THE CAXTON PRESS 

NEW YORK 



<9 



■^> 



Copyright, 1922, by 
E. LEIGH MUDGE 



Printed in the United States of America 

Si:Pl4'22 

©C1A6S1005 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAVTBS PAGB 

Specialization Courses in Teacher Training — 5 

A Developing Field of Study 11 

I. The Background of Early Adolescence 13 

II. A Period of Transition 20 

III. Physical Changes in Early Adolescence 30 

IV. The Significance of Sex in Early Adolescence 39 
W. Intellectual Phases of Early Adolescence . . 49 
VI. The Development of the Life of Feeling 57 

VII. Abnormalities in Early Adolescence 64 

VIII. Work and Play Attitudes 76 

IX. Moral Life and Social Relationships 88 

X. The Religious Life of Early Adolescence ... 100 



THIRD YEAR SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER 
TRAINING 

Conforming to the Standard and Outlines Approved by the 
Sunday School Council 

For Teachers of Beginners 

A Study of the Little Child. Mary T. Whitley. 
Story Telling for Teachers of Beginners and Primary Chil- 
dren. Katherine D. Cather. 
Methods with Beginners. Frances W. Danielson. 

For Teachers of Primary Children 

The Primary Child. Mary T. Whitley. 
Story Telling for Teachers of Beginners and Primary Chil- 
dren. Katherine D. Cather. 
Methods for Primary Teachers. Hazel Lewis. 

For Teachers of Juniors 

Junior Department Organization and Administration. Ida 

M. Koontz. 
Other units in preparation. 

For Teachers of Adolescents 

(Intermediates, Seniors, and Young People.) 

Psychology of Early Adolescence. E. Leigh Mudge. 

Community Forces for Religious Education (early adoles- 
cence). G. Walter Fiske. 

Community Forces for Religious Education (middle adoles- 
cence). G. Walter Fiske. 

Other units in preparation. 

For Administrative Officers and Teachers of Adults 

The Psychology of Adult Life. Theodore G. Soares. 

Principles of Christian Service. Henry F. Cope. 

The Educational Task of the Local Church. William Clayton 

Bower. 
Other units in preparation. 



SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER 
TRAINING 

In religious education, as in other fields of construc- 
tive endeavor, specialized training is to-day a badge 
of fitness for service. EflFective leadership presup- 
poses special training. For teachers and administrative 
officers in the church school a thorough preparation 
and proper personal equipment have become indis- 
pensable by reason of the rapid development of the 
Sunday-school curriculum which has resulted in the 
widespread introduction and use of graded courses, in 
the rapid extension of departmental organization, and 
in greatly improved methods of teaching. 

Present-day standards and courses in teacher train- 
ing give evidence of a determination on the part of the 
religious educational forces of North America to pro- 
vide an adequate training literature, that is, properly 
graded and sufficiently thorough courses and text- 
books to meet the growing need for specialized train- 
ing in this field. Popular as well as professional inter- 
est in the matter is reflected in the constantly increas- 
ing number of training institutes, community and 
summer training schools, and college chairs and de- 
partments of religious education. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of young people and adults, distributed among 

5 



SPECIALIZATION COURSES 

all the Protestant Evangelical churches and through- 
out every state and province, are engaged in serious 
study, in many cases including supervised practice 
teaching, with a view to preparing for service as 
leaders and teachers of religion or of increasing their 
efficiency in the work in which they are already 
engaged. 

Most of these students and student teachers are 
pursuing some portion of the Standard Course of 
Teacher Training prepared in outline by the Sunday 
School Council of Evangelical Denominations for all 
the Protestant churches in the United States and 
Canada. This course calls for a minimum of one hun- 
dred and twenty lesson periods including in fair edu- 
cational proportion the following subjects: 

(a) A survey of Bible material, with special ref- 
erence to the teaching values of the Bible as 
meeting the needs of the pupil in successive 
periods of his development. 

(b) A study of the pupil in the varied stages of his 
growing life. 

(c) The work and methods of the teacher. 

(d) The Sunday school and its organization and 
management. 

The course is intended to cover three years with a 
minimum of forty lesson periods for each year. 

Following two years of more general study, provision 
for specialization is made in the third year, with 
separate studies for Administrative Officers, and for 
teachers of each of the following age groups : Begin- 

6 



SPECIALIZATION COURSES 

ners (under 6) ; Primary (6-8) ; Junior (9-1 1) ; Inter- 
mediate (12-14) ; Senior (15-17) ; Young People (18- 
24), and Adults (over 24). A general course on 
Adolescence covering more briefly the whole period 
(13-24) is also provided. Thus the Third Year 
Specialization, of which this textbook is one unit, pro- 
vides for nine separate courses of forty lesson periods 
each. 

Which of these nine courses is to be pursued by any 
student or group of students will be determined by the 
particular place each expects to fill as teacher, super- 
visor, or administrative offiicer in the church school. 
Teachers of Juniors will study the four units devoted 
to the Junior Department. Teachers of young peo- 
ple's classes will choose between the general course on 
Adolescence and the course on Later Adolescence. 
Superintendents and general officers in the school will 
study the four Administrative units. Many will pur- 
sue several courses in successive years, thus adding to 
their specialized equipment each year. On page four 
of this volume will be found a complete outline of the 
Specialization Courses arranged by departments. 

A program of intensive training as complete as that 
outlined by the Sunday School Council necessarily 
involves the preparation and publication of an equally 
complete series of textbooks covering no less than 
thirty-six separate units. Comparatively few of the 
denominations represented in the Sunday School 
Council are able independently to undertake so large 
a program of textbook production. It was natural, 
therefore, that the denominations which together had 

7 



SPECIALIZATION COURSES 

determined the general outlines of the Standard course 
should likewise cooperate in the production of the re- 
quired textbooks. Such cooperation, moreover, was 
necessary in order to command the best available talent 
for this important task, and in order to insure the suc- 
cess of the total enterprise. Thus it came about that 
the denominations represented in the Sunday School 
Council, with a few exceptions, united in the syndicate 
production of the entire series of Specialization units 
for the Third Year. 

A little more than two years have been required for 
the selection of writers, for the careful advance co- 
ordination of their several tasks, and for the actual 
production of the first textbooks. A substantial num- 
ber of these are now available. They will be followed 
in rapid succession by others until the entire series for 
each of the nine courses is completed. 

The preparation of these textbooks has proceeded 
under the supervision of an editorial committee repre- 
senting all the cooperating denominations. The pub- 
lishing arrangements have been made by a similar 
committee of denominational publishers likewise 
representing all the cooperating churches. Together 
the Editors, Educational Secretaries, and Publishers 
have organized themselves into a voluntary association 
for the carrying out of this particular task, under the 
name Teacher Training Publishing Association. The 
actual publication of the separate textbook units is 
done by the various denominational Publishing Houses 
in accordance with assignments made by the Pub- 
lishers' Committee of the Association. The enterprise 

8 



SPECIALIZATION COURSES 

as a whole represents one of the largest and most sig- 
nificant ventures which has thus far been undertaken 
in the field of interdenominational cooperation in reli- 
gious education. The textbooks included in this series, 
while intended primarily for teacher-training classes 
in local churches and Sunday schools, are admirably 
suited for use in interdenominational and community 
classes and training schools. 

This volume includes the specialized study of the 
intermediate pupil. The period of early adolescence, 
from about 12 to about 14, coincides with the period of 
the Intermediate Department in our Sunday-school 
classification and with the junior high-school period in 
the organization of the public school. While it grows 
out of the period of later childhood and is closely re- 
lated to that stage in development, and while it also 
merges gradually into middle adolescence, the inter- 
mediate period has some distinct and important char- 
acteristics and problems. The writer of this book has 
attempted to set the chief distinguishing marks of early 
adolescence by themselves, to study the problems in- 
volved in understanding this distinctly problematic 
age and to give some suggestions for practical peda- 
gogy as well as for further study. 

The field of human genetic psychology is relatively 
new and untilled. But there is a growing feeling that 
among the subjects of chief importance for prospective 
teachers none is more important than a study of the 
nature of the pupil to be instructed and guided. And 
as specialization becomes the rule both in the public 
school and in the church school it is clear that teachers 



SPECIALIZATION COURSES 

must study diligently the nature of the pupils they 
are to teach. Within the past decade a number of 
very valuable general studies of childhood and adoles- 
cence have appeared. This series of specialization 
texts marks an advance step in acquainting the teacher 
in training with a definite age group of pupils. The 
student electing this course will study the nature of 
intermediate boys and girls. It is hoped that this 
textbook may open the door to a thorough first-hand 
study that will discover many elements in boy and girl 
life which cannot be discussed within the limits of a 
brief textbook. 

For the Teacher Training Publishing Association, 
Henry H. Meyer, 
Chairman Editorial Committee. 



10 



A DEVELOPING FIELD OF STUDY 

The history of a modern science is like the life 
history of a tree. Each may be said to start as a single 
stalk, then divide into two or three branches. These 
develop into still others, until we have a great number 
of specialized twigs all related to the parent trunk. 
Thus the study of man is divided into such great 
branches as physiology and psychology. Psychology is 
divided into a variety of branches, of which adult psy- 
chology has long been a chief branch. Child psy- 
chology is a rather recent development. When the 
writer, as a university student, less than twenty years 
ago wished to give some attention to child psychology, 
he was dissuaded with the information that "about all 
that we know about child psychology is that we know 
nothing about it," Since that time there have been 
many students of this subject, most of them including 
under the head of "child psychology" all discussion of 
the developmental period. 

The first major division to grow out of child psy- 
chology was the psychology of adolescence, which has, 
in its turn, been treated as a unitary period. Later 
students divided childhood into two periods, earlier 
and later, and made a similar division of adolescence. 
The more recent custom, which we follow in this book, 
divides childhood into three periods (after infancy) 
and makes a similar threefold division of adolescence. 

n 



A DEVELOPING FIELD OF STUDY 

We shall here discuss the earliest of these adolescent 
periods — the pubertal, or early-adolescent period. 

This volume is based upon the author's experience 
as a teacher and student of adolescent life both in the 
Sunday school and in the public school and higher 
institutions. As a college and normal-school teacher 
he has been engaged in training young men and women 
for teaching adolescent boys and girls in grade schools 
and high schools. Many conclusions in this book are 
traceable in part to the testimony of college students 
to their memories of their own early adolescence. Al- 
though the evidence of one's memory of earlier years 
must be accepted with discriminating care, the relative 
nearness of these students to the period investigated 
adds to the value of their testimony. 

It is hoped that teachers and students who read this 
book will not depend on it for all or even the larger 
part of their knowledge of early adolescence. The 
function of a textbook is very different from that of 
a cyclopedia. It should be a suggestive gateway into 
the problems of the subject studied. This subject 
should be largely a laboratory study, your laboratory 
being your own classroom, if you are already a teacher, 
or in any case some available group of early adolescent 
boys or girls. Observe them, study them, and seek for 
a sympathetic contact with their lives and their prob- 
lems. 

At the end of each chapter will be found a series 
of problems or projects to be worked out by the stu- 
dent and also a selected Hst of references which will be 
of value. 

12 



CHAPTER I 

THE BACKGROUND OF ADOLESCENCE 

It is difficult to describe any developing thing. You 
may photograph it, analyze it, describe it as it is to- 
day ; but to-morrow it will be different and will need 
another description. To make your descriptions of 
any value you must employ some sort of measure or 
classification, so as to distinguish between stages of 
development. Here again there are difficulties, for 
your scale is likely to be more or less arbitrary and 
cannot take account of all the actual changes in a 
constant process of development. When to these diffi- 
culties is added the exceeding complexity of human 
lifo, and the human organism, the difficulty of classify- 
ing the developmental period, from birth to adult life, 
is clearly seen. 

Defining the Period 

» This difficulty appears when we attempt to define 
the period of early adolescence. It is the period when 
the myriad forces that, within a few years, transform 
a child into an adult are in their first swirling confusion. 
It is frequently called the pubertal period, because 
puberty is its central and characteristic experience. 
But puberty does not come at a uniform age. It 
appears earlier in girls than in boys; earlier in warm 
countries than in cold; and there are wide individual 

13 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

variations in the coming of this epochal physiological 
change. But, admitting that its characteristic marks 
may appear earlier in some cases than in others, we 
may conveniently consider the period of early adoles- 
cence to include the years from twelve to fourteen or 
fifteen. Within these years a complex and tumultu- 
ous multitude of characteristics come into prominence 
in the developing nature. We shall not have space in 
this textbook even to name them all, but we shall 
discuss many of them briefly and refer to books in 
which others are specially treated. 

School groups. — In terms of Sunday-school and 
public-school classification early adolescence is the 
intermediate or junior-high-school age. Middle ado- 
lescence covers approximately the senior age in the 
Sunday school or the senior-high-school period — fifteen 
to seventeen. Later adolescence covers the years of the 
Sunday-school Young People's Department or the col- 
lege and university years — from seventeen or eighteen 
to about twenty- four. 

Adolescence as Readjustment 

There are vast differences between childhood and 
adulthood, and it is not strange that the transition 
period is a very complicated one. It is a period of 
conflicting impulses, of stress and strain, of a multi- 
tude of bewildering characteristics and states. Into 
the whirlpool of adolescence the impulses of childhood 
are poured. Up from its depths arise new or greatly 
modified impulses, and out of it flow the normally 
strong though relatively placid streams of adult life. 

14 



BACKGROUND OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

With wide individual variations adolescence represents 
a readjustment of bodily and mental powers and of 
social and aesthetic and religious relationships. It 
should not be supposed, however, that adolescence is 
merely a riot of new forces in the personality. It is 
organically connected with childhood and should be 
studied with constant reference to the period out of 
which it comes. There are no new laws of thought 
or emotion in adolescence ; there is only a development, 
relatively rapid, to be sure, of mental functions already 
operative. For example, reasoning, submitting all ideas 
and beHefs to the adjudication of thought, is relatively 
characteristic of adolescence. That which has previ- 
ously been accepted as true must satisfy the adolescent 
idea of reasonableness. But reasoning does not sud- 
denly spring into being at this point. Thought and 
logical inference have been developing from very early 
childhood, and it is important to recognize the roots 
of this and other phases of the adolescent mind in the 
preceding periods. 

Characteristics of the Preadolescent Period 

Early adolescence is preceded by a period of some 
years which may be called "later childhood." We 
shall need a general knowledge of the characteristics of 
this period in order to understand the period that grows 
out of it. The following list of characteristics of later 
childhood may be supplemented from your own obser- 
vation and from your study of books on childhood : 

Physical. — Relatively slow physical growth; great 
immunity to exposure ; growing resistance to fatigue. 

15 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

Social. — Fighting, quarreling, and teasing; individ- 
ual interest in competitive games ; a developing "gang" 
tendency ; interest in clubs and societies ; interest in 
chums; an apparent sex repulsion; sympathy with 
individual suffering. 

Emotional and ethical. — Slight but growing control 
of emotions; vivid daydreams; a developing code of 
honor ; no clear distinction between truth and imagina- 
tion; a visual image of God; a relative readiness to 
believe what older people say about religion; little 
interest in religion as an inner, personal experience. 

Intellectual. — Vivid imagination; inventive tend- 
ency; acute perception; interest in acquiring skills; 
interest in memorizing ; interest in reading ; interest in 
relatively isolated facts. 

Miscellaneous. — Interest in biography; adventure 
interest ; interest in pets ; barter or.temporary exchange 
of property; indifference of boys to personal appear- 
ance ;i the tomboy age in girls; choosing a vocation 
without a reason. 

Significance of the preadolescent period. — All 
these elements in the preadolescent period are impor- 
tant to the student of early adolescence. They are not 
suddenly superseded at puberty; they develop and 
change. The significance of education appears in the 
fact that each period leans upon the one preceding it. 
What the adolescent boy or girl is depends on the years 
of childhood. What one teacher does with a child 



^A mother writes of her flfteen-year-old son: "He has just taken to 
combing his hair without coercion. When we left — » " ■ (two years be- 
fore), he wept because he had to spend ?23 of his money for a suit; yes- 
terday be was more than happy to spend $36.50." 

i6 



BACKGROUND OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

modifies the work of all succeeding teachers. The pre- 
adolescent period may be described as a time of prep- 
aration, of the slow but steady development of reserve 
energy that will be needed in the storm and stress of 
adolescence, of the forming and fixing of habits that 
should be well established by the time the currents of 
new and strange forces come sweeping into adolescent 
experience. Throughout this period the development 
of habits of right conduct and religious observance and 
the stimulation of worthy ideals are of high importance. 
The safety of our boys and girls in adolescence is 
largely in these preestablished ideals and habits. 

Adjustments to Be Made 

A comparison of an eleven-year-old child with an 
adult will show vividly what adjustments must be made 
by the intervening processes of adolescence. A typical 
eleven-year-old boy is impulsive, noisy, careless about 
personal habits, holds girls in contempt (or, at least, 
affects to do so), is interested in concrete situations 
but not in abstractions, fights for his personal rights, 
enjoys games that reward individual prowess, has 
strong emotions but weak self-control. There are 
many changes and developments to be made before he 
has the very different characteristics of manhood. A 
girl of the same age is just as widely different from a 
mature woman. The changes which must take place 
are the work of adolescence. Most of these adjust- 
ments are of slower growth than some have supposed, 
their development continuing into the later teens or 

17 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

early twenties ; but in many cases their most vigorous 
and rapid growth is in early adolescence. 

It is sometimes difficult to mark their adolescent 
flowering, because neither the boys and girls themselves 
nor their adult observers understand the meaning of 
impulses when they first appear. Indeed, many of 
the impulses of early adolescence are vague and in- 
definite, apparently meaningless, and hence sometimes 
perplexing and distressing to those who experience 
them. 
j It is the work of adolescence to develop out of a 
child's body, mind, moral attitudes, and aesthetic ap- 
\ preciations the vastly different corresponding qualities 
\oi an adult. Habits and skills that cannot be fully de- 
veloped in childhood must be perfected. Instincts that 
have been but slightly manifest in childhood must be 
brought into full functioning. Some of the instincts 
and emotions have been relatively unchecked in child- 
hood, while others have been repressed or have not 
appeared with any degree of energy. These must be 

harmonized and wrought into a unity. There are 

three ways in which an instinct may be modified. It 1 
may be facilitated or encouraged ; it may be inhibited or 
repressed; or it may be sublimated or changed in its 
expression. It is the work of education consciously to 
effect such modifications. There are certain modifica- 
tions of instincts which the processes of adolescence 
seem to effect without our aid. Thus, the social im- 
pulses are normally facilitated in early adolescence, but 
emotional expression is relatively inhibited. Thus, the 
impulse of fear undergoes sublimation, being in great 

i8 



BACKGROUND OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

degree mcxiified from the original tendency to flight 
or terror until it becomes a chief element in the feelings 
of awe and reverence. The teacher should be familiar 
with these normal adjustments and should know how 
to influence his pupils so as to effect other desirable 
modifications of their impulses. The important part 
assumed by early adolescence in making the adjust- 
ments needed between childhood and adult life will be 
shown in succeeding chapters. 

Problems 

1. Write a careful description of some preadolescent 
boy or girl whom you know. Then parallel this by 
indicating the changes that must take place before he 
or she is a normally developed adult. 

2. The period beginning about the fifteenth year 
and ending about the seventeenth is called ''middle 
adolescence." With definite boys and girls in mind 
make a list of characteristics of this period, showing 
wherein it differs from early adolescence. 

References for Further Reading 

The High-School Age, King, Chapter V. 

Seven Ages of Childhood, Cabot, Chapters I to IV. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapters II and 

Adolescence, Hall, two volumes. 
Youth, Hall. 

The Psychology of Childhood, Norsworthy and 
Whitley. 
Introduction to Child Psychology, Waddle. 



19 



CHAPTER II 

A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 

To UNDERSTAND any period it is necessary not only 
to know its characteristics and to know something of 
the period out of which it comes, but also to have some 
understanding of the period into which it develops. 
Hence, we should constantly view early adolescence 
against the background of the whole developmental 
period of childhood and youth. 

The Problem of Adolescence 

The study of adolescence is difficult because of the 
relatively rapid changes, physical and mental, which 
are occurring. These changes are not clear and distinct 
successive states, but a veritable whirlpool of new 
forces that enter the life of boy or girl to the great 
bewilderment of everyone, including these young peo- 
ple themselves. There is a paradoxical blend of new 
and old impulses, of mutually contradictory impulses, 
so that in early adolescence many impulses are vague 
and perplexing. "I don't understand Mary," says her 
mother. **She has the keenest mind of any of my chil- 
dren, but her Sunday-school teacher says she is restless 
and mischievous in class and never joins in the dis- 
cussions or answers a question." "Jo^^^j why do you 
act this way?" asks his puzzled father, when John 

20 



A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 

moodily refuses to wear the hat he has long been ask- 
ing for, and will not give any explanation for his 
refusal. John and Mary themselves do not understand 
the reason for the queer impulses and unreasonable be- 
havior that make them such a problem to older peo- 
ple. They often feel a vague sense of estrangement. 
Susan Dorsey tells of a young girl who said to another 
after a speaker had urged the junior high-school girls 
to spend more time at home, ''Wasn't it strange for 

Mrs. to tell us to get acquainted with our 

mothers? I know my mother." "Well," replied the 
other girl, "maybe you do, but I don't know my mother, 
and I can't get acquainted with her." 

A complex period. — The whirlpool of adolescent 
impulses is not a chaos, however; it has its dominant 
currents, which, after a time, emerge from the swirl 
of new feelings, emotions, and ideas, become more and 
more regular, dependable, and clear, until they assume 
the relatively even flow of adult life. Human life 
is never simple. There are unmeasured complexities 
in the life of the newborn babe or the mature man, 
but the period of adolescence is one of unusual com- 
plexity, at least to superficial observation. Percy R. 
Hayward tells of a group of boys who unanimously 
agreed to attend a contest with groups from other 
churches. Only two of the boys appeared. A month 
later, when a similar competition was held, the boys 
came in full force and entered enthusiastically into the 
contest. Were they insincere in promising to attend 
the first contest? No, but they experienced a char- 
acteristic adolescent change of feeling. They became 

21 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

self-conscious, afraid of failure in the competition. It 
is this sort of paradoxical, complex behavior which 
puzzles and worries many parents and teachers. 

Possible Overemphasis on Classification 

The student should be aware of the constant danger 
of overemphasizing the various divisions into periods. 
We are dealing with organisms, bodies and minds, 
which are constantly changing, and with periods that 
merge into one another as do the various life stages of 
an oak tree. But, since the development is not a steady, 
dead-level progress, we may aid our study by dis- 
tinguishing certain stages. We may divide adolescence 
into three periods — early, middle, and later adoles- 
cence. 

Comparison of Early With Middle Adolescence 

It is natural that the perplexing vagaries of currents 
and counter-currents should be most noticeable in the 
earlier stages of adolescence. Early adolescence is in 
the grip of relatively unknown forces and is conse- 
quently bewildered, awkward, self-conscious. The boy 
of this period doesn't know what to do with his hands 
or his feet, and this may symbolize his relation to many 
things with which he has to deal. He does not know 
how to use his enlarging muscles, his lengthening 
bones, his changing physical impulses, his new feelings 
and motives, and the new ideas that accompany these 
other changes. So he amazes his parents by strange 
antics, loud laughter, unconventional behavior, and a 
queer blend of half-mature, half-childish ideas. 

22 



A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 

A higher development. — Middle adolescence is be- 
ginning to get used to the newer life forces. The large 
fundamental muscles are under better control and skill 
in the finer muscular coordinations is developing. The 
body is normally becoming more symmetrical and less 
angular. Awkwardness is giving way to more graceful 
movements. And with the physical refinements a 
better mental balance is being attained. Despite the 
self-distrust that often still appears there is a distinct 
self-confidence, often unreasonably exaggerated. The 
fits of sulkiness which characterized the earlier period 
have led to a characteristic melancholy, which alter- 
nates with periods of joy and cheerfulness. An ex- 
amination of the precocious poems written by our 
notable poets in middle adolescence or a little later 
shows clearly this characteristic melancholy. Some- 
times it appears in early adolescence, but it is usually 
a middle-adolescent trait. 

Aesthetic appreciation. — Middle adolescence wit- 
nesses the normal flowering of the love of beauty. 
^Esthetic appreciation has been growing through early 
adolescence, but has still much of the childish love of 
bright colors, loud sounds, vivid sensory experiences. 
There is no sudden leap into full appreciation, but 
beauty seems to make a much deeper appeal in the 
midst of the middle-adolescent years than ever before. 

Sex relations. — How large a part of the incipient 
courtship of early adolescence is due to the unduly 
stimulating suggestions of older persons is hard to 
determine. There is evidently a new attitude of inter- 
est in the opposite sex in the boy or girl of this period, 

23 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

though the time to expect the budding of individual 
romance is normally the later period. Middle adoles- 
cence is usually the period of the first definite love 
interest, and very real though frequently short-lived 
courtships may be expected at this time. There is a 
notable development of social attitudes that aids in 
the differentiation of middle from early adolescence. 
Early adolescence is the climax of the gang period — the 
time when boys or girls form naturally in rather small 
groups and also are interested in chums of the same 
sex. In middle adolescence there are perhaps fewer 
chums but a tendency of such friendships to be more 
permanent, while the general social interest extends 
to larger groups. 

Comparison With Later Adolescence 

The term ''later adolescence" has been used for the 
period from about seventeen years to perhaps twenty- 
four. This includes the college years for one fortunate 
group and the years when life is settling down to its 
pace of permanent service and adult interests. These 
are the years when the various and often inharmonious 
impulses of adolescence are resolved into some sort of 
balance ; when habits of acting and feeling and think- 
ing are approaching a relative fixity. Some of the 
differences between this period and early adolescence 
may be indicated by a study made by the author with 
the assistance of nearly two hundred college and 
university students. These students, themselves in the 
midst of the period of later adolescence, were asked 
to recall their experiences, impulses, and interests of 

24 



A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 

the age of fifteen and compare them with their present 
experiences as to their relative strength or vividness. 
Obviously this involves the uncertainty of memory, 
and the recorded judgments should not be taken as 
positive and conclusive evidence by themselves. Their 
testimony is of value, however, as contributory evi- 
dence. The following statements appear to be war- 
ranted by this study : 

Contrasting interests. — In later adolescence there 
is greater interest than in early adolescence in business 
matters, machinery, love stories, visual art, music, 
literature, newspapers, politics, and social functions. 

There is less interest in later adolescence than in 
early adolescence in pets, collections, adventure stories, 
puzzles, and active games. This does not necessarily 
mean that these interests disappear in later adolescence. 
Indeed, the author's study of girls' collections^ shows 
that there is a wide variety of collection interests ex- 
tending into the college years. 

Other characteristics of later adolescence, accord- 
ing to this study, are ease of controlling emotions, will- 
ingness to accept authority, feelings of responsibility, 
ability to concentrate, concrete planning for the future. 
In early adolescence, however, quick anger, daydream-^ 
ing and vivid night dreams appear characteristic. 

Early Adolescence a Transition Period 

Transition periods, in the life of an individual or of 
a social group, are likely to be marked by irregular 

^Pedagogical Seminary, Volume XXV, Number 3, September, 1918, 
page 319. 

25 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

progress, a mixture of tendencies and counter^end- 
encies, and a considerable degree of noise and disturb- 
ance, all of which are disconcerting to a mature individ- 
ual or a developved social state. Early adolescence is 
such a period. It is essential that the child become an 
adult, and this cannot be accomplished by any instan- 
taneous transformation. There must be a process of 
growth, and this necessitates many adjustments and 
readjustments. One must learn how to use larger 
and stronger muscles, how to control a changing system 
of nervous responses, feelings, and emotions, how to 
maintain a mental balance in the midst of experiences 
impossible before. As new forces and influences ap- 
pear in the life of the adolescent boy, the world itself, 
for him, becomes changed. He lives in one world in 
childhood ; now he must adjust himself to a very differ- 
ent world; and in so doing he is being prepared for 
the adult world which lies beyond. He becomes con- 
scious of many elements in human life which he has 
not known. His social outlook widens and he becomes 
conscious of new social relationships into which he 
must enter. He becomes self-conscious and awkward 
and shy. He is attracted toward new social relation- 
ships and also is afraid of them. He wants to join 
the crowd, but he is bashful. He is anxious to please 
and afraid of offending, and still may feel a wild 
delight in shocking people. He has a new social con- 
sciousness, but has not outgrown the self-regard of 
childhood. Being neither a child nor a man, but hav- 
ing a mixture of the traits of childhood and manhood, 
he is a complex of contradictions. At times, and some- 



A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 

times almost simultaneously, he is bold and timid, self- 
assertive and self -reproachful, careless and particular, 
sensitive and apparently callous, ill-humored and cheer- 
ful, irascible and meek. 

Why They Are Misunderstood 

It is not strange that boys and girls of this age are 
misunderstood by older people. Still less should they 
be expected to understand themselves. Until we know 
that such complexities and self -contradictory traits 
as are mentioned above are normal and natural we are 
not prepared to deal sympathetically with early adoles- 
cence. The blind blundering of parents and teachers 
and law-enforcement officers has done vast harm to 
many boys and girls who might have been saved from 
lives of vice and crime had they been treated intelli- 
gently and sympathetically. If you have in your class 
a "bad" boy or the girl whom the teachers call the 
"terror" of the school you have a problem to be solved 
not by severity and sarcasm, but by a patient study of 
the nature, needs, and interests of this individual pupil. 

The runaway tendency. — The often-observed tend- 
ency of boys or girls of this period to run away from 
home is due in part to the native wanderlust that most 
of us feel to some extent and which has appeared be- 
fore in the running away of childhood; but another 
contributing cause is that parents frequently get out 
of touch with the boys and girls whose impulses and 
motives they do not understand. A frequent ground 
of misunderstanding is the indolence of which active 
parents often complain. Boys and girls who have been 

27 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

energetic and alert often puzzle older people by their 
laziness in early adolescence. This is frequently due 
to rapid bodily growth and the increasing strain upon 
heart, lungs, and other visceral organs. The adrenal 
glands, whose function it is to stimulate and ''tone up" 
the muscular system, become easily exhausted in this 
period when rapid growth puts new demands upon 
them. Frequently there is energy coming in spurts 
followed by periods of lassitude. The indolence of 
early adolescence should be met with sympathy rather 
than unqualified disapproval. The boys and girls are 
aware of this characteristic laziness, but they do not 
understand its cause. Understanding and helpful 
teachers are greatly needed. 

Many boys and girls who have been blamed for 
indolence in early adolescence have become active and 
energetic in later years. Special consideration should 
be shown the girls at this time, when important life 
functions are being established. 

Pedagogical Hints 

Our boys and girls are puzzHng enough at best, but 
they are less perplexing to us as teachers if we recognize 
that shifting moods and contradictory traits are normal. 
Do not expect that John will come to Sunday school 
every Sunday in the same mood, or that Mary's be- 
havior can always be predicted. But do not make the 
mistake of treating them as children. They are not 
children and will resent being included in that category. 
They should have as distinct a place in the church 
school as in the junior high school. 

28 



A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 



Problems 

1. Write a list of characteristics of (a) middle 
adolescence; (b) later adolescence. 

2. Recall your own early adolescence and describe 
the impulses that were stronger then than now. 

3. Make a list of books of fiction which describe 
adolescent life and locate the characters as to whether 
they are in early, middle, or later adolescence. 

Books for Further Reading 

The Pupil and the Teacher, Weigle, Chapters VI 
and VII. 

The High-School Age, King, Chapters VIII and IX. 
Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Parts III and IV. 
The Pupil, Barclay, Chapter IX. 



29 



CHAPTER III 

PHYSICAL CHANGES IN EARLY ADOLES- 
CENCE 

General Growth 

All the physical developments of early adolescence 
are vitally related to the wonderful process which we 
call puberty. The preceding period has been one of 
relatively slow growth, although there has been a dis- 
tinct lengthening of the arms and legs. It has been 
called the "angular age." After the first premonitory 
symptoms of puberty there is relatively rapid growth, 
both in height and weight, continuing until toward the 
end of middle adolescence, when the rate of growth 
decreases. The following table gives the average 
heights and weights of boys and girls through later 
childhood and into middle adolescence : 



TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND HEIGHTS 


Age 


Weight 


Height 


10 years ^ 

11 years 


Mak 
66.6 
72.4 
79.8 
88.3 
99.3 
110.8 
123.7 


FeTnale 

64.1 

70.3 

81.4 

91.2 

100.3 

108.4 

113.0 


Male 
52.2 
54.0 
55.8 
58.2 
61.0 
63.0 
65.6 


Female 
51.8 
53.8 
57.1 
58.7 
60.3 
61.4 
61.7 


12 years 


13 years 


14 years 


15 years 


16 years 



30 



I PHYSICAL CHANGES 

Relation of Growth to Puberty 

It will be noticed that at about twelve to fourteen 
years the average girl exceeds the average boy in both 
height and weight, although at all other times boys are 
taller and heavier than girls. The explanation of this 
is in the close relation of early adolescent growth to 
puberty, the girl attaining the puberty maturity a year 
or so earlier than the boy. Irving King, in The High- 
School Age, which is one of the most important books 
for your reference shelf, shows the close relation be- 
tween early adolescent growth and puberty. 

The maturing of the sex function is of course central 
i in all these physical changes, and the rapid increase in 
stature is so nearly coincident with the change of 
puberty that it may ordinarily be taken as a proof that 
that change has taken place. It should be said, how- 
ever, that the period of most rapid growth is usually 
well toward completion at the appearance of puberty. 

Muscular growth. — During early adolescence there 
is a relatively rapid development of the large muscles 
both in length and thickness. This is closely related 
with the ''muscle hunger" (the impulse to activity of 
the larger muscles) which is characteristic of the 
period. The finer developments of smaller muscles 
come later. Now the boy or girl is occupied with the 
larger bodily movements and is not so skillful in the 
use of small muscles. This muscular growth is less 
' pronounced in girls than in boys, while a greater tend- 
ency to develop fat has been observed in girls. These 
differences may be partly due to the girl's having less 

I 31 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

exercise and partly to the adaptation of her body to 
the later functions of maternity. They certainly indi- 
cate that wholesomely vigorous exercise is important 
for girls. 

Irregular growth. — Not infrequently there is a 
difference in rate of growth between bones and muscles. 
When the muscle growth is slower, "growing pains" 
are frequent at this period. A muscular overgrowth 
may explain the extreme flexibility of joints some- 
times observed. Muscle growth is not always sym- 
metrical, and careless habits of posture or movements 
may result in accentuated distortions, spinal curvatures, 
etc. 

Awkwardness. — All these changes in bone and 
muscle have their effects upon behavior. Since the 
long bones are levers, any rapid changes in their 
length involve, according to the laws of mechanics, 
corresponding changes in the force that must be applied 
in order to move them. As muscles grow, there are 
changes in the effort involved in their use. The natural 
result is that this is an age of awkwardness, especially 
for those whose growth has been most rapid. Much 
allowance should be given for this fact in judging the 
behavior of boys and girls who seem heedlessly awk- 
ward. Walking on stilts is awkward exercise for 
most people, and this is practically what the boy or 
girl is doing at the time of the rapid growth about the 
beginning of adolescence. 

Resistance to fatigue. — Changes in visceral organs 
and in bones and muscles are closely related with a 
changing resistance to fatigue. Throughout later child- 

32 



PHYSICAL CHANGES 

hood there has been a growing power to resist fatigue, 
but this increase is noticeably diminished ©r may give 
place to an actual decrease in the early pubertal period. 
The result of this may be indolence, or there may be 
a muscle intoxication that is a veritable ''hunger for 
fatigue." 

Changes Relating to Puberty 

The fact that puberty, the maturing process of the 
sex functions, is so clearly related to these and many 
other physical developments indicates that the nervous 
and mental and moral and social phenomena related to 
sex are of great importance not only in adolescence but 
in all later life. The instincts involved in sex have been 
called "delayed instincts." Their full development has 
been delayed, it is true ; but we can trace the develop- 
ment of the feelings, attitudes, and sentiments related 
to sex through the years from early childhood. It is 
the delicate differences of disposition and attitude and 
behavior between girl and boy in childhood which lead 
to the more distinctly recognized sex differences of 
adolescence. 

Secondary sex characteristics. — With the appear- 
ance of puberty the boy experiences the change of 
voice from the childish treble to a deeper resonance. 
This process is often irregular, and for a time the two 
types of voice may be oddly mixed. The boy also dis- 
covers the rudimentary beginnings of a beard. The 
girl's voice also changes, but so gradually that the 
modification is less noticeable. There is a decided dif- 
ference between the child voice and that of the girl in 

33 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

middle adolescence. The girl begins to develop the 
characteristic bodily figure of womanhood with the 
enlarging of breasts and hips. In both sexes a notice- 
able factor in pubertal growth is the relative lengthen- 
ing of the trunk. 

Visceral Organs and Glands 

In infancy and early childhood the necessities of 
growth demand a proportionally large intestinal capac- 
ity. The weight of the intestine is at birth 6.7 per 
cent of the total weight; by adolescence it has been 
relatively reduced to about 3.3 per cent. The heart, 
liver, and kidneys are also relatively large in infancy, 
the rate of growth being less during the succeeding 
periods of childhood. With the coming of adolescence 
the heart makes another rapid growth. The adolescent 
heart js large but relatively weak, while the arteries are 
proportionally small ; hence, the blood pressure is high. 
The development of lung capacity is peculiarly vari- 
able, depending very largely on habits of exercise and 
outdoor life. There is perhaps no better test for the 
health and vigor of either children or adolescents than 
a test of lung capacity. 

Glands and their secretions. — The influence of 
glands and their secretions upon bodily and mental 
growth is a subject that merits much attention. The 
development of the glands of the reproductive system 
is accompanied by changes in various other glands. 
Perhaps all of the glands of the body undergo some 
distinct modification at puberty. Changes have been 
observed in perspiration and in the secretion of the 

34 



PHYSICAL CHANGES 

sebacious glands. The sweat glands and the sebacious 
glands become more active. The skin becomes more 
oily. Pimples and skin eruptions are characteristics. 
The liver and kidneys are relatively large, but the 
thyroid gland decreases in weight at puberty, the 
thymus gland having normally atrophied and ceased 
to function at six or seven. Both these glands have 
important functions, especially in childhood, in regulat- 
ing bodily growth and mental development. They be- 
long to the ductless group, in which are included the 
adrenals, the pineal, and the pituitary body. The 
adrenals secrete a substance called adrenin, which acts 
as a stimulant to the heart and external muscular 
system, but inhibits the action of the muscles of the 
digestive apparatus. It is very closely related with the 
sex glands and plays a major part in the bodily re- 
actions in all strong emotions. There is a close rela- 
tion also between the pituitary body and the functions 
of sex. Indeed, all these glands, whose influence upon 
body and mind is great, are closely related in their 
development to the processes of puberty. 

Nerve and brain development. — -At puberty the 
brain has attained nearly its largest size, though there 
is considerable further growth of the skull. But there 
is a great development in early adolescence of the con- 
nection between different parts of the brain. The brain 
developments of adolescence are hard to describe, but 
there is a period of transition, development, adjust- 
ment, in which nervous energy does not find ready 
modes of response. The result is the nervous insta- 
bility, the emotional shifts, the frequently changing 

35 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

moods, of the adolescent period. The relation to 
mental abnormalities of this period in nervous develop- 
ment will be shown in a later chapter. 

The extent and vital influence of all the foregoing 
changes upon mind as well as body indicate clearly that 
teachers should know the physiology of development, 
should seek for the best hygienic conditions for chil- 
dren and young people, and should recognize the value 
of fresh air and suitable food and exercise and a 
school program adapted to the changing needs of child- 
hood and adolescence. 

Four Kinds of Age 

The word "age" is used in four different senses, 
which should be understood by every church-school or 
public-school teacher: 

1. Chronological age. — We often make serious mis- 
takes by overemphasizing, in our grading, promotion, 
and general treatment of a pupil, the mere number of 
years and months a boy or girl has lived. 

2. Physiological age. — Some develop their bodily 
functions faster than others. One boy of twelve may 
be as mature physiologically as another boy of four- 
teen. Physiological age is measured not by years but 
by physiological development. 

3. Mental age. — Many who are mature in their gen- 
eral bodily functions are relatively immature mentally. 
Some minds develop slowly, others rapidly. Some 
minds are incapable of development beyond a certain 
point. Various mental tests have been devised to meas- 
ure general intelligence and thus determine one's 

36 



PHYSICAL CHANGES 

mental age. It is probable that mental age, during 
the developmental period, is generally related to 
physiological age. The development of mental ma- 
turity depends largely on the progress of physical 
maturing.! 

4. Pedagogical age. — The fourth use of the term 
''age," a somewhat unusual one, is in the sense of 
school progress as measured by grades. 

It is important that the teacher shall know the rea- 
sons for many wide variations between boys and girls 
of the same chronological age. Puberty works decided 
changes in the organism and in the mental powers, 
and these changes involve a relatively rapid shifting 
of interests and motives and impulses. 

Problems 

1. In view of the physical development of early 
adolescence what are the most wholesome types of play 
for this period? 

2. Estimate the heights and weights of a group of 
children of similar chronological age. How nearly 
uniform are they? 

3. Is chronological age a sufficient basis for Sunday- 
school grading ? Give reasons for your answer. 

4. Should school grades be according to mental age 
or physiological age or neither ? Why ? 

References for Further Reading 

Adolescence, Hall, Volume II. 
The High-School Age, King. 

Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist, 
Watson, Chapter V. 

^studies in Child Welfare, Baldwin, page 196. 

37 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage, 
Cannon. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter IIL 

The Physical Growth of Children From Birth to 
Maturity, Baldwin. 

Principles of Secondary Education, Monroe (edi- 
tor), Chapter VII (by Guy Montrose Whipple). 

Growth and Education, Tyler. 

The Glands Regulating Personality, Berman. 

The last-named book is very valuable for the mass of 
important facts presented. Many of the applications 
of these facts are warranted, but some theories may be 
questioned. 



38 



CHAPTER IV 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX IN EARLY 
ADOLESCENCE 

To THE superficial observer the instinctive tendencies 
involved in sex seem to appear quite abruptly with 
adolescence. The relatively rapid development, at this 
period, of the reproductive organs and the appearance 
of new attitudes toward the opposite sex make this 
view seem very natural. But the sex instincts appear 
long before the maturing of sex functions. In fact, 
the characteristics, attitudes, and differences of sex 
appear in infancy and have undergone a long process 
of development before adolescence begins. Observe 
the differences in the behavior of girls and boys, even 
in the tomboy age of the ten-year-olds. Notice, for 
example, the schoolground tendency to group by sex. 
While it is possible to overestimate these differences, 
there are observable comparisons between the sexes 
throughout life. 

The Broader Conception of Sex Life 

Sex includes much more than the impulses leading to 
physical reproduction. It includes the ideals and senti- 
ments involved in the attitudes of one half of humanity 
toward the other. The characteristics of sex are the 
characteristics of humanity in so far as there are native 
differences in body or mind between boys and girls 
and men and women. "The normal woman is essen- 

39 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

tially female from head to foot, in bearing and conduct, 
in sentiment and expression, in feeling, thought, and 
action, and from the beginning of girlhood to the end 
of life. So, also, with the normal man. He is essen- 
tially and vitally male, throughout the whole range of 
his being."! 

The importance of sex. — The impulses of sex also 
appear in a vast number of ideals, sentiments, and 
emotional attitudes toward nature, art, human society, 
even toward God, which have been developed through 
the sublimation of the more primitive sex impulses. 
Include with the sex tendencies the parental instinct, 
with its fundamental relation to all human tenderness 
and sympathy for the weak and helpless, and we have 
a group of tendencies that have largely determined the 
progress of human history. Without the tenderness of 
husband and wife and the unselfishness of father and 
mother it is doubtful if the human race would ever 
have learned the lessons of social amity and altruism, 
upon which our civilization is built. 

Normal Sex Relationships in Early Adolescence 

It is the misfortune of many who are dealing with 
adolescent boys or girls that they lack sympathy with 
the normal positive expression of the impulses of sex. 
We have seen so many abnormal, unhealthy develop- 
ments from the instincts of sex that we often assume 
a negative or repressive attitude. Adolescent boys and 
girls were created to say "yes" to life rather than "no," 
and it is important that we place before them the 

»r»e Ptychologv of Adolescence, Tracy, page 134. 

40 



SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

wholesome ideals of sex life that will develop right atti- 
tudes. 

Various manifestations of sex. — Although love, in 
its developed form, appears normally in middle or later 
adolescence, it has its lesser beginnings in the sex atti- 
tudes of childhood and early adolescence. Interest in 
the opposite sex in the preadolescent and early adoles- 
cent periods appears in a variety of forms. 

(a) Apparent sex-repulsion. — Nature seems to have 
provided a protection against the overstimulation of 
the developing sex functions in the apparent opposition 
and incompatibility of the sexes at this time. For 
some time before puberty the boy seems to feel a 
natural scorn for all things pertaining to girls of his 
own age, while the girl is just as vigorous in her 
apparent dislike of boys. This attitude is not a 
thorough sex opposition. It is often an attitude of 
defense against public opinion or criticism. It is 
really a recognition of a new significance in sex, and 
may even be the expression in this inverted form of a 
new interest in the opposite sex. 

(b) Positive sex-attraction. — Even while he seeks 
his exclusively male gang and expresses his dislike of 
girls the boy is awakening to a new interest in girls. 
While assuming an attitude of scorn toward all things 
feminine he may try in various ways, by gymnastic 
feats or even by teasing or other rudeness, to gain 
the attention of some secretly admired girl. To de- 
scribe the early adolescent attitude as exclusive sex 
repulsion is to interpret too simply a complex of normal 
social attitudes. 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

(c) Premature love affairs. — The courtships of 
early adolescence constitute another complicated prob- 
lem of interpretation. Since there is a decided element 
of sex attraction even in this period, there may be some 
elements of a genuine courtship situation. On the other 
hand, many of these childish affairs are stimulated^by 
suggestions from older persons, from a natural curi- 
osity concerning sex, and from a natural desire to 
emulate the experiences of boys and girls a little 
older. One young woman recalls the following expe- 
riences of her early adolescence : 

I found here that my natural companions and friends 
were much more grown up than I was. They "did 
their hair up," they had *'beaux," they were infinitely 
"young ladified," even though they were all my own 
age. They all had a great passion for "going walking." 
They would start out about six thirty in the evening 
and walk and walk until it grew dark, when they would 
meet the boys of their choice. I wished to be with 
them and I always envied their grown-up ways and 
their ability to talk to people of all sexes and ages. I 
myself was very shy, and it was hard for me to carry 
on a conversation. I had a great fear, however, of 
being left out of things, and so I always heroically 
endured the long walks for fear of them thinking I 
was not a "good sport." But I was always relieved 
when Friday came, and I could go out to grandma's 
and play with my little sister. I forgot my Latin and 
algebra then and joined in with her doll playing on the 
back porch. 

The need for sympathy and understanding on the 
part of parents and teachers is clear. Many a tragedy 
has grown out of the heartlessness and ignorance of 

42 



SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

adolescent life that either stimulates childish love 
affairs or else laughs at them. 

(d) Rivalries between boys and girls. — One phase 
of the typical sex attitude of this period is the frequent 
occurrence of rivalries between boys and girls in vari- 
ous activities. The boy works at his books because he 
dislikes to be beaten by a girl, while the girl is just as 
determined to show her prowess in any sort of contest. 
This spirit of rivalry is perhaps encouraged by the fact 
that generally in early adolescence the girl is physically 
the equal or even the superior of the boy. She can 
run as fast or strike as hard a blow as her brother. 
The situation is further complicated by the girl's attain- 
ing the pubertal maturity a year or two earlier than 
the boy and by the vague turmoil into which adoles- 
cence precipitates them both. 

(e) Still another phase of the sex life of early 
adolescence is seen in certain attitudes of boys and 
girls toward older persons. Nothing could be finer or 
more wholesome than these admirations and devotions 
of adolescents, under normal conditions involving sym- 
pathetic and helpful adult influences. The hero or the 
adoree may be of the opposite sex, though this appears 
to be more characteristic of middle adolescence. It is 
probably more common in early adolescence to be de- 
voted to an older person of one's own sex. Especially 
with girls, but also in some degree with boys, this type 
of devotion partakes of the nervous and emotional 
characteristics of a sex reaction. ^ Unless the adoree is 



^A Young Oirl'9 Diary, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul, pages 215 
and 278. 

43 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

a sensible and high-minded woman, there are subtle 
dangers in this type of adoration. This situation, 
which is not uncommon, implies a distinct responsibility 
for the guidance into wholesome channels of the some- 
times tumultuous emotions of adolescent life.^ 

Abnormal Attitudes 

The normal development of the sex life in adoles- 
cence is a wholesome and beautiful element in the un- 
folding social nature. Its abnormal development is 
repulsive. But there are serious facts which must be 
understood by those who teach our boys and girls. It 
is not frequently necessary to introduce these facts 
into our teaching, but we must know them in order to 
know what more wholesome teachings and attitudes 
are needed and in order to recognize the occasional 
need for words of admonition. It is beyond question 
that a large proportion of sexual immorality begins 
even before the adolescent development is completed. 
The majority of prostitutes, for example, are said to 
enter this career of shame between the ages of fifteen 
and eighteen,-^ and probably few or none of them 
actually had their first immoral experiences later than 
fifteen. The observations of many teachers and others 
associated with boys or girls unite in the general con- 
clusion that there are most unwholesome elements in 
the ideas and attitudes of a large proportion of adoles- 
cents with regard to sex. 



'The psychic dangers of this type of relationship are vividly shown 
in Clemence Dame's novel. Regiment of Women. See also (Hrlhood and 
Character, Moxcey, page 106 £f. 

'Adolescence, Hall, Volume I, page 431. 



SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

The source of these evils. — These adolescent evils 
are very largely the result of ignorance, parental 
neglect, the social taboo upon the discussion of sex, 
and all those social and commercial forces which 
prey upon the weak, the ignorant, and the superstitious. 
But the basis for the effect of all these influences is 
in certain instinctive tendencies in the boys and girls 
themselves — tendencies that may be turned into use- 
ful channels through good educational methods, but 
which are bound to express themselves in some form. 
Curiosity is a native tendency appearing even in in- 
fancy and developing through childhood and adoles- 
cence. Curiosity concerning matters of sex is normally 
strong in early adolescence; but if it is satisfied with 
information, wholesomely and sympathetically given 
by parents or other adult advisers, it need occasion no 
alarm. 

Sex taboo. — With curiosity are closely associated 
other tendencies, such as the inclination to be inter- 
ested in new experiences, in secrets, in surreptitiously 
obtained information. Add to these a love of adven- 
ture and the actual stress of the adolescent sex im- 
pulses, and unless there is careful guidance and 
friendly counsel, the perversions of the sex instinct are 
well-nigh inevitable. Despite the responsibility that 
this common situation imposes upon parents and other 
guardians of young life, the common policy, even to- 
day, is one of avoiding the discussion of sex problems 
with our children. This is one of our most serious 
educational errors. "The assumption that ignorance 
of self as an animal and of the actual functions of life 

45 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

will be a protection against the vices and the evils of 
youth and maturity is the most threatening theory in 
the practice of a generally prudent civilization."* 

Nervous reactions. — Early adolescence is normally 
a state of emotional susceptibility, nervousness, rest- 
lessness, and excitement. Even under wholesome con- 
ditions new information concerning sex may come with 
a certain emotional shock. Under unwholesome influ- 
ences such information may affect the nervous balance 
quite seriously. A thorough study of several cases of 
hysteria in young women showed that in nearly every 
case the primary disturbance was traceable to some 
nervous shock associated with sex experiences at the 
time of puberty. 

Correcting and Preventing Unwholesome 
Attitudes 

In our opposition to unwholesome and immoral de- 
velopments we have the assistance of nature. Among 
the merciful provisions for this period are characteris- 
tic tendencies to modesty, shyness, and reticence. The 
tendency of boys and girls to draw apart in their inter- 
ests and in their social groupings is a part of this 
wholesome provision of nature. But this tendency is 
not all-corrective. In fact, some of the most serious 
evils arise in the entire separation of boys and girls 
in boarding schools. We can cooperate with nature in 
the defense of our boys and girls in several ways : 

I. We may lead them in an attitude of respect for 

♦President Homer H. Seerley in an address glren at Sioux Citj, Iowa, 
April 22, 1898. 



SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

nature. Nature love is very closely akin to religion. 
Nature is God manifesting himself to us in this world. 
When your pupils feel the dignity in nature they will 
recognize the divinity in the natural process of birth. 

2. We may encourage wholesome activities and a 
healthy outlook upon life. You may never have occa- 
sion to teach your pupils sex hygiene, but you should 
direct their impulses, many of which are reen forced by 
the irradiations of sex, into wholesome channels of 
idealistic service. 

3. We may appeal to the noble elements of chivalry 
in boys and womanliness in girls. It is easy to appeal 
to these idealizations of worthy attitudes. Boys should 
have before them the examples of strong men who 
were chivalrous and true to the finest ideals. Girls 
should have before them the examples of worthy and 
noble women. The ideal heroes and heroines for early 
adolescence are not ascetics but strong, vigorous, con- 
trolled personalities. The church-school teacher has 
a splendid opportunity to stimulate a worthy idealism 
through the stories of the noble characters in the Bible 
and other historical literature. 

4. We may encourage a normal and wholesomely 
environed association of boys and girls. The normal 
home, the normal church, the normal school, must 
contain both. And their social program should in- 
clude not only parties exclusively for one sex but 
parties for both, in which we may utilize those social 
interests which they hold in common. Needless to 
say, we should not emphasize the sex relations, which 
will come to attention soon enough in middle adoles- 

47 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

cence. Among the common faults of careless people 
has been the overstimulation of sex interest by sug- 
gesting sweethearts and courtships to boys and girls 
who should be good friends, with no more thought of 
sex relationships than the naturally developing, shy 
recognition of new meanings in boyhood and girlhood. 

Problems 

1. What Bible stories are most wholesome in de- 
veloping worthy sex attitudes in early adolescent boys 
and girls? 

2. What are the arguments for and against coedu- 
cation ? 

3. Observe and record the attitudes of some boy or 
girl of 12 to 14 toward persons of the same age but of 
the opposite sex. 

4. What elements of value in developing wholesome 
sex life can you find in the Boy Scouts and the Camp 
Fire Girls ? 

References for Further Reading 

The Boy and the Sunday School, Alexander, Chapter 
XV. 
A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe, page 

157 ff- 

The Psychology of Religion, Coe, page 150. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapter VI and 
pages 64, 65, 249, 250. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter X. 

Seven Ages of Childhood, Cabot, page 249. 

The High-School Age, King, page 69. 

Principles of Secondary Education, Inglis, Chapter 
XL 

Sex Education, Bigelow. 

Sex for Parents and Teachers, Stowell. 

48 



CHAPTER V 

INTELLECTUAL PHASES OF EARLY 
ADOLESCENCE 

There are two theories of adolescent development : 
the saltatory theory, according to which the boy or girl 
attains the adolescent changes by a sudden forward 
leap, and the theory of gradual development. The 
preceding chapters have indicated that the author's 
position is between the extremes of these theories. 
Adolescent development involves relatively rapid 
changes, which are, however, part of a gradual growth 
and which cannot be understood without the back- 
ground of earlier development. Some who have held 
an extreme form of the saltatory theory have con- 
sidered reason a distinctly new development in adoles- 
cence. The reasoning functions, however, have had 
an extended development before assuming the more 
distinct form in which they appear in adolescence. 
Even in infancy there are inferences that, though often 
fallacious, are based upon implicit judgments. And the 
power of thought, of abstraction and analysis and 
classification and generalization, grows throughout 
childhood. 

The New Emphasis Upon Reason 

Coming into prominence in early adolescence is a 
distinct consciousness of one's abihty to solve prob- 

49 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

lems and a growing insistence upon submitting all 
things to the test of one's own reason. This is part 
of the general feeling of self-confidence and self-re- 
gard, which is now attaining a prominent place. A 
tendency to insist upon one's own judgment and rea- 
son increases throughout early and middle adolescence. 
In childhood many things were accepted upon the 
authoritative statements of parents or teacher, but 
in adolescence all authority may be questioned and 
criticized. Childhood was generally marked by un- 
questioning belief and acceptance of what was said by 
parent or teacher or Bible or textbook, but adolescence 
is an age of doubt. Many parents and teachers are 
disturbed by this natural appearance of a tendency 
to question matters that are accepted implicitly by chil- 
dren and considered authoritative by adults. There 
is, however, a providence in this adolescent trait. Were 
it not for the adolescent tendency to criticize and doubt, 
all would come to adulthood with a fixed confidence 
in prevailing conditions and beliefs, and progress 
would be impossible. 

Religious Doubts 

A skeptical attitude toward religious ideas is more 
characteristic of later periods, but one can find its 
beginnings in early adolescence. Teachers should not 
be overalarmed at this, but should be ready to meet 
it in an attitude of fairness and reason. The religious 
attitudes and feelings, developed and encouraged in a 
wholesome social atmosphere in childhood, will have 
their effect in the transition time of adolescence. In- 

50 



INTELLECTUAL PHASES 

telligent and sympathetic guidance is very important, 
however, in the perplexing period when the founda- 
tions of belief seem to be crumbling. Dogmatism will 
not do, nor an appeal to prejudice or precedent. The 
teacher must himself see clearly the fundamental truths 
that can be shown to be reasonable, must be sym- 
pathetic, and must be patient with the intellectual per- 
versities of this transition period. 

An Imperfectly Organized Intelligence 

The mind of early adolescence still has many of the 
characteristics of the child mind while it is discover- 
ing some of the modes of adult thinking. It often 
shifts from one type of thought to another. It insists 
upon reasons that are themselves prejudices. It places 
an adult conception upon a background of childish con- 
ceptions and is constantly bewildered in the attempt 
to harmonize what it has discovered of the world of 
adult life with its vital memories of the child world. 

Intellectual Awakenings 

The relatively sudden development of a new inter- 
est, while more common in middle adolescence, is not 
infrequent in the earlier period. The boy or girl who 
has been indifferent to school work gets a new enthu- 
siasm for it. Those who have found a certain study a 
drudgery get a new insight into it and become deeply 
interested in it. Concepts meaningless to childhood 
acquire significance in adolescence. The size and shape 
of the earth, though often presented at the beginning 

51 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

of geography textbooks, is not interesting to children 
because it is hardly conceivable. A child will accept 
the statements and memorize them, but is not able to 
image such a vast sphere as our earth. In adoles- 
cence the mind and its concepts undergo expansion. 
Now the mind that once thought of the moon as near 
the treetops can begin to grasp its location in space 
and becomes interested in facts of astronomy and 
mathematics hitherto incomprehensible. 

Imagination 

Imagination has a long history before adolescence. 
It begins even in infancy, grows rapidly throughout 
the fairy-tale period of early childhood, grows still 
more in the vigorous boy and girl days from seven to 
twelve, and then bursts into a characteristic bloom in 
early adolescence. Early childhood is the "let's play" 
period, which Mrs. Cabot calls the dramatic age. Later 
childhood is the time when the child begins to desert 
the fairy world because the real world is more inter- 
esting, when a craving for facts about the world de- 
velops, when stories of real life, hero tales, adventure 
tales, biography, nature lore, thrill the soul. The 
glamour of fairyland is not needed now. The world 
is a fairyland, the next town is a delightful mystery, 
all the world is full of the glory of life. What more 
can adolescence do? It throws over the world a new 
glamour through a new appreciation of the meaning of 
the world and nature and human society. It is the 
age of a new insight, when nature and art acquire a 
deeper and more intimate significance, when one's re- 

52 



INTELLECTUAL PHASES 

lation to society is felt with unique keenness, when new 
attention is given to moral values, and when religion 
attains a deeper personal meaning. The fairyland of 
childhood has faded, leaving sometimes a sense of 
regretful disillusionment; the world of later childhood 
has lost much of its mysterious charm; and then the 
rosy glow of awakening romance colors all things, 
while it throws the newly discovered valleys into 
deeper shadow. 

Daydreams. — 'Early adolescence is only the firstt 
stage in the development described above. It is marked 
by an exuberant imagination that is not yet under 
thorough control. The mind is awakening to a deeper 
intuition into the meanings of things and has not yet 
learned to check up this insight by the regulations of 
reason. The years of middle and later adolescence 
gradually develop the sober consideration that de- 
stroys some adolescent air castles and puts others on 
firmer foundations. Early adolescence is the period 
of daydreams and vaguely extravagant imaginings and 
hence is peculiarly exasperating to the unsympathetic 
adult whose youthful visions have long faded. The 
boy or girl who goes through the day indolently and 
absent-mindedly may be lost in a maze of daydreams. 
Of course, we must recall such a one to the realities 
and problems of life, but it should be done with sym- 
pathy and understanding. Many boys and girls, hav- 
ing been harshly treated, their youthful ideals meeting 
no sympathetic response from older people, have built 
up a wall of defensive reserve and behind this have 
lived a dream life quite isolated from the prosaic expe- 

53 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

riences of every day. One young woman thus de- 
scribes an experience of this kind : 

When about thirteen I had succeeded in building up 
an "indifferent" exterior, which concealed my bashful- 
ness within. People said I was remarkably dignified 
and reserved. . . . But in my imagination I was 
a butterfly of fashion. I held whole roomfuls charmed 
by my wit and vivacity. ... A decided snub from 
the real world of envious or disgusted schoolmates 
would tear down my "rainbow gleams" and cast me 
into the deepest despair. Often I wondered if I 
wouldn't be far happier if I killed myself and saved 
future trouble. Soon, however, my common sense 
would come to my rescue, and I would console myself 
by another daydream. 

Suggestibility 

G. Stanley Hall, in his monumental work, "Adoles- 
cence," says two things that seem at first sight incon- 
sistent. In one place he says: "The youth who has 
been amenable to advice and even suggestion now be- 
comes obstreperous, recalcitrant, filled with a spirit of 
opposition, and cannot repress a toplofty superiority to 
the ways and persons of his environment." 

In another place he says of youth: "It is plastic to 
every suggestion, tends to do everything that comes 
into the head, to instantly carry out every impulse; 
loves nothing more than abandon, and hates nothing so 
much as restraint. It is the age that can withstand no 
dare or stump; loves adventure and escapade; tends 
to let every faculty go to its uttermost." 

An apparent paradox. — These statements, one of 
54 



INTELLECTUAL PHASES 

which seems to affirm, the other to deny the sug- 
gestibility of adolescence, are in reality in harmony. 
The adolescent boy or girl is highly suggestible, but 
sometimes the suggestion from parent or teacher is met 
by a stronger suggestion from some other source. 
Young people are frequently autosuggestible or coun- 
tersuggestible, especially with reference to direct sug- 
gestion. The skillful teacher will, as far as possible, 
avoid direct suggestion. When you say, "John, close 
the door," John may do so, but not very willingly. He 
does not like to be so addressed. If you say, **Joh"> 
isn't it rather warm in this room?" John is likely to 
respond more graciously. Suppose you wish your class 
to dramatize the story of Ruth. You say : *'Mary, take 
the part of Naomi. Be sure to have it learned by next 
Sunday." If Mary appears at all she is more likely 
to do her part grudgingly and listlessly than if you had 
said: **Who can take the part of Naomi? Mary, I 
am sure you can do that well." Thoughtful attention 
to the problem of indirect suggestion will save the 
teacher many difficulties. The most forceful sug- 
gestions you can make for the development of courtesy 
and character to young people are in your own habits 
and example. No amount of admonition to dress 
neatly will be so effective as your own personal ap- 
pearance; no number of lectures on moral acts and 
attitudes will have such suggestion value as your own 
acts and attitudes. And you can so plan as definitely to 
lead the minds of your students through indirect sug- 
gestion by consulting rather than ordering. It is not an 
easy task to be a teacher of adolescent boys and girls. 

55 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

Jtjs^ easy to be a boss ; it requires inid^ivje and char- 
,4Ct^r to be a leader. 

Problems 

1. Why should the junior high school be separate 
from the senior high school? 

2. At what age does interest in debating begin? 
How do the arguments of a high-school debate differ 
from those in the debates of adults ? 

3. Recall your adolescent daydreams. Can you 
remember any development in them? How did they 
differ from those of to-day? 

4. Recall the teachers who influenced you in early 
adolescence. Can you explain their influence? 

References for Further Reading 

Adolescence, Hall, Volume H, Chapter XVL 

The High-School Age, King, Chapter IX. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter 

vn. 

The Seven Ages of Childhood, Cabot, Book Four. 
Principles of Secondary Education, Inglis, Chapter 



CHAPTER VI 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LIFE OF 
FEELING 

It is doubtless true that psychology is the most com- 
plex of sciences. The old conception of the mind as 
divisible into certain parts, each of which has its 
separate function or "faculty," is now abandoned. 
Psychology, according to that theory, was relatively 
simple ; but now we are learning that there is no such 
simple separation between mental functions. Memory, 
for example, is not an isolated mental power but a 
phase or attribute of the whole mind and the bodily 
functions that condition the mind. Sensation was 
formerly separated distinctly from affection, the basic 
element in feeling and emotion, and we are now dis- 
covering that these two so-called elements are not only 
closely interwoven with one another, but are in reality 
of the same nature psychologically. Feehng is con- 
ditioned by the stimulation of a complex of nerve 
endings, sometimes widely separated from one another, 
which are not so localized as to give the relatively clear 
reactions of sensation. Great numbers of such nerve 
endings are in the chest and abdomen, and in the more 
vigorous feeling reactions we can recognize feelings of 
depression or buoyancy or relaxation or expansion in 
these parts of the body. 

57 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

The Reasons for the Nervous Instability of 
Adolescence 

With the general bodily changes of adolescence and 
a considerable extension and sensitization of the nerv- 
ous system the feeling life of youth is exceedingly com- 
plex and variable. The various glands of the body, in- 
cluding the ductless glands, which have a very direct 
influence upon feeUng states, are undergoing rapid 
development, the whole bodily constitution is expe- 
riencing a variety of shifts and changes that demand 
readjustment, and the feelings and emotions are 
normally relatively unstable and shifting. 

The foregoing discussion of the physiology of feel- 
ing gives the clue to many of the adolescent reactions 
that perplex the more completely organized mind of 
the adult. The boy or girl has frequent changes of 
mood. Cheerfulness and melancholy, good temper and 
ill temper, and many other contradictory impulses 
puzzle us with their alternations. In many cases the 
adolescent is a puzzle even to himself. He has mysteri- 
ous impulses whose origin he cannot trace; he has 
vague impulses whose nature he cannot understand. 
A college student, recalling her high-school years, says : 
"Whenever I think of my life in the teens I am re- 
minded of the meadow across the road from my old 
home as it appeared on one of those whimsical days 
in March when bright sunshine and chilly, rainy 
shadows, like tidal waves, flowed over it." 

Contradictory Characters 
The presence in the same personality of contra- 
58 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE OF FEELING 

dictory characters or differing and apparently incom- 
patible impulses is not an evidence of mental weakness 
or inferiority. Indeed, it may be maintained that the 
really great personality is invariably possessed of such 
contradictory impulses in unusual degree. Thus 
Luther was at times and sometimes almost simultane- 
ously possessed by joy and depression, assurance and 
despair, courage and fear, self-reliance and self- 
abnegation, sympathy and hatred, superstition and 
*'hard-headedness."* Perhaps the greatest number of 
such opposing characters are found in the life of Jesus, 
whose impulses were strong and vigorous and were 
held in the marvelous balance and restraint that mark 
his maitchless life. 

Such opposition of impulses appears normally in 
adolescence with relatively little of the inhibition, the 
voluntary or habitual restraint, which limits and con- 
ceals the tendencies of adults. It must be remembered, 
also, that early adolescence lies close to childhood and 
still retains many of the characteristics of childhood 
even while developing the contrasting characteristics 
of adult life. Life is a seething mixture of childish 
impulses and adultlike traits, of vague and mysterious 
impulses, of various tendencies not yet regulated and 
reduced to order and harmony. To know this element 
of variation in the nature of adolescence is of the 
highest importance for a teacher. Many a teacher is 
discouraged because a boy's behavior is so inconsistent 
or because a girl is so subject to changes of mood. 
One element in understanding adolescent boys and girls 

*P»ychological 8tvdie» in Lutheraniem, Helsey, page 88 t. 

59 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

is the realization that their behavior cannot be alto- 
gether understood even by themselves. They are atten- 
tive one Sunday and inattentive the next. Now they 
are your caustic critics and now they are loyal friends. 
Now they are enthusiastic workers and now they 
neglect every responsibility. If we judge them by 
adult standards we shall find them an inexpHcable 
problem; but if we realize that it is their nature to 
be changeable, if we are hopeful and sympathetic 
and ready to join in a frequent bit of wholesome fun, 
and if we develop tact in responding helpfully to each 
unexpected new phase of adolescent life, we may 
render them very important service. 

Joy and Melancholy 

Perhaps the chief difference between early and 
middle adolescence with regard to these contradictory 
impulses is that in early adolescence the impulses are 
more vaguely felt and less clearly differentiated, while 
in middle adolescence their opposition is more keenly 
appreciated. The violent stress and strain of conver- 
sion crises is more likely to occur in middle adolescence 
and should not usually be expected in early adolescence. 
In early adolescence the alternation of sulky, sullen 
hours with periods of joy is characteristic. In middle 
and later adolescence there is a more settled melancholy 
which may alternate with wild hilarity. The first pub- 
lished writings of many of our notable poets were 
written in middle or later adolescence, and a spirit of 
melancholy is quite characteristic of them. Bryant's 
Thanatopsis, written at eighteen, is a case in point. 

60 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE OF FEELING 

Positive and Negative Self-Feeling 
Early adolescence begins a period of self-discovery, 
when the boy or girl makes a revaluation of self. In 
childhood one was part of a family or a school,with 
little feeling of independence. Now, although a period 
of broadening social interest is beginning, the dignity, 
the importance, and the new powers of the individual 
self are becoming prominent in consciousness. The 
new growth and strength, physical and mental, are 
exaggerated in the imagination. There are feelings of 
superiority and a pride in strength that may seem 
ludicrous to the unsympathetic adult. Naturally an 
overestimation of one's powers leads to disappointing 
experiences, and then comes self-condemnation, often 
bitter and acute. The boy or girl in the grip of these 
contradictory impulses should have the full sympathy 
of parents and teachers. There is high joy in personal 
attainments, and there may be merciless self-castiga- 
tion when one fails or makes an awkward blunder. 
Mary Antin, after describing a social blunder made in 
the embarrassment of a triumphant grammar-school 
graduation says : "With all my talent for self-analysis 
it took me a long time to realize the essential pettiness 
of my trouble. For years — actually for years — after 
that eventful day of mingled triumph and disgrace I 
could not think of the unhappy incident without in- 
ward squirming." 

Violent Emotions and Stolidity 

Feeling itself misunderstood and unappreciated, 
adolescence frequently barricades itself behind an ex- 

6i 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

terior of apparent indifference and even stolidity. Such 
a case was described in Chapter IV. Teachers may be 
deceived by this reserved attitude into beHeving the boy 
and girl really unfriendly and indifferent to the opin- 
ions or attitudes of others. But this is another example 
of the opposition of impulses. A sympathetic sug- 
gestion, a friendly word or act, a sincere interest in 
such a boy or girl, may break down the barrier, and a 
torrent of emotion may ensue. Childhood shows fre- 
quent emotions, which are very real but transitory and 
only slightly inhibited. Adolescence does not yield so 
readily to emotional expression, probably because it is 
afraid of its power; but when the inhibitions are once 
removed, it will be discovered that adolescence is highly 
emotional and capable of depths of feeling unknown 
to childhood. 

Storm and Stress 

The opposing forces in the adolescent personality 
frequently appear in acute experiences of inner strain 
and tension, when the boy or girl is tortured by oppos- 
ing ideals and impulses. An inner conflict between 
the forces of good and of evil, between an ideal Hfe 
and inharmonious impulses, is not infrequent. The 
chapters on the moral and religious Hfe will discuss- 
this more fully. In such experiences the need of ado- 
lescence is for teachers who understand and sympathize 
and are ready to lend counsel and encouragement with- 
out violating the delicate sense of reserve which youth 
feels in his hours of inner strife. By suggestion 
and tact we can often modify a situation that would 

62 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE OF FEELING 

otherwise involve an undesirable emotional reaction. 
Two pupils come in, apparently on the verge of a quar- 
rel. Any admonition that would further attract their 
attention to one another is probably unwise, but by 
diverting their attention in some other direction the 
teacher may avert an undesirable emotion that will be 
still further obviated by time. 

Problems 

1. Recall and describe the more vivid emotional 
experiences that you recall from your own early ado- 
lescence. 

2. Make a study of some one of your pupils involv- 
ing the traits discussed in this chapter. 

3. Make a list of the "contradictory characters" in 
the life of some great religious leader. 

4. Make a study of the early writings of various 
poets and see if you can discover in them the adoles- 
cent melancholy described in the chapter. 

5. Find examples in biography of the characteristics 
discussed in this chapter. 

References for Further Reading 

The Psychology of Religion, Starbuck, Chapter III. 
Life in the Making, Barclay and others. Chapter 
XII. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapters IV and 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter VI. 



63 



CHAPTER VII 
ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

Early adolescence begins a period of nervous and 
emotional instability. Adolescence is an age of what 
G. Stanley Hall calls "natural inebriation." It is an 
age of excitement, of high enthusiasms, of increasingly 
fervid emotional states. Many Sunday-school teachers 
are perplexed and distressed at the behavior of pupils 
of this age. We are often exasperated by the be- 
havior of normal boys and girls and we are still more 
troubled when a pupil develops some abnormal tend- 
ency and is "queer" or "bad" because of some physical 
or mental defect. It is a serious fault in a teacher 
constantly to suspect his problematic pupils of abnor- 
malities, but it is well for us to know that some pupils 
who make us trouble should perhaps be given great 
sympathy rather than blame. 

The relatively rapid development of the body, in- 
cluding the nervous system and the glands intimately 
related to nervous and emotional reactions, has been 
described in Chapter III. Under the influence of all 
the stimulations and impulses involved in this phase 
of growth, early adolescence is naturally a period of 
emotional ferment, of unstable nervous equilibrium. 
There is a peculiar Hability to nervous and mental 
abnormalities at this time. Hereditary defects that 
have been latent throughout childhood frequently ap- 

64 



ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

pear in early adolescence, and there is in early and 
middle adolescence a special tendency for any hidden 
abnormalities to reveal themselves. 

Hereditary Defects 

The chief hereditary defect is feeble-mindedness. 
The definition of feeble-mindedness adopted by the 
English Royal Commission on Mental Deficiency is 
substantially as follows : 

''A feeble-minded person is one who is incapable, be- 
cause of mental defect existing from birth or from an 
early age, (a) of competing on equal terms with his 
normal fellows; or (b) of matiaging himself or his 
affairs with ordinary prudence." The term is quite 
commonly confined to those with a mentality above 
that of imbeciles, and the term "moron" is frequently 
used to designate a person of the higher degrees of 
feeble-mindedness. Feeble-mindedness can usually be 
detected early in childhood, but it becomes especially 
evident in early adolescence. "At the age when the 
normal child is forging ahead most rapidly, when he 
is experiencing an intensification of all processes of 
Hfe, the defective child is dropping behind all the more 
rapidly."^ 

There are certain so-called accidental causes of 
feeble-mindedness which may occur in childhood, but 
the cases of hereditary feeble-mindedness are much 
more numerous. The studies and discoveries of the 
last few years indicate that in a high percentage of 
cases feeble-minded children come from feeble-minded 



^The High-Bchool Age, King, page 57. 

65 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

parents or show such taint in their remoter ancestry. 
And the laws of heredity are such that the marriage of 
feeble-minded persons may be quite confidently ex- 
pected to lead to feeble-mindedness in their progeny, 

J/iV very large proportion of our crime and of our eco-\ 
nomic incapacity is due to the propagation of feeble- j 

V mindedness. ^ 

Preventable Defects 

We should know something of the symptoms and 
significance of feeble-mindedness and other hereditary 
defects, for we owe to such whatever care we can g^ve 
them; but our chief concern as teachers is with those 
defects which are preventable or curable, especially 
with those which represent not a subnormal mentality 
but a poorly balanced nervous system. There are wide 
variations in the nervous conditions of our boys and 
girls. All are in some degree predisposed to nervous- 
ness in early adolescence, but in some there is a serious 
degree of this predisposition. It may be the result 
of fright in childhood or later, of glandular abnor- 
malities, of irregular habits of eating, sleep, etc., or, 
in many instances, of unregulated and ignorant atti- 
tudes toward the sex functions. Mosso, the Italian 
physiologist, says : "Every ugly thing told to a childQ 

revery shock, every fright given him, will remain like ; 

\ a minute splinter in the flesh to torture him all hisil 
(^ life long." These psychic shocks are often forgotteiif 

"so far as consciousness is concerned, but are subcon- 
sciously retained. They are often serious predisposing 
causes to mental abnormalities, which frequently appear 

66 



ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

in accentuated form early in adolescence. The expe- 
rience of psychiatrists seems to prove that the best 
treatment for such hidden mental and nervous sore 
spots is to bring them as far as possible into the con- 
sciousness of the afflicted person, make clear what was 
the nature of the original shock, and help him get a 
wholesome understanding of the possibility of adjust- 
ing himself to the newly understood situation. 

The Subconscious 

The importance of a good environment during child- 
hood and adolescence is clear when we understand how 
susceptible to influence the unconscious or subcon-"^ 
scious part of the mind is. Only a small part of the ' 
content of the mind is in our consciousness at any one 
time. This is illustrated in Figure i, in which the large 
triangle represents the mind, only the very apex 
emerging from the subconscious mass, like the part of 
an iceberg above the waterline, as consciousness. The 
line between consciousness and the subconscious is not 
a fixed one but is constantly changing. Many things 
are held in the upper levels of the subconscious. Thus, 
a moment ago the date of Columbus' discovery of 
America was not in my consciousness, but I have 
readily brought it into consciousness. My dream of 
last night also comes very readily into my conscious- 
ness. These cases are represented by the line "a" in 
the figure. Line **b" represents those mental contents 
which may be with difficulty brought into clear aware- 
ness. There are many difficult recollections of this 
nature. Many things are stored in these deep levels 

67 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

of memory which can be brought to light only through 
unusual associations of ideas, unusual types of sug- 
gestion, or even through hypnotism. Such are many of 



ISCIOUSNESS 



B 
THE SUBCONSCIOUS 

^ II • 

C 



>i 



I 



the disturbing memories of child experiences of which 
one is not usually directly conscious. Line "c" repre- 
sents a mass of impressions and unconscious memories 
which never come into consciousness at all. Its con- 
tinuation in the dotted line, however, is intended to 

68 



ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

indicate that even such mental elements have their 
effect upon consciousness. An entirely hidden mental 
experience may be a disturbing factor affecting one's 
whole life. And we are justified in believing that every 
experience we have ever had, conscious or unconscious, 
has made its contribution to the nature of our present 
mental life. Early adolescence is a very impressionable 
period. The experience of these days, the words 
heard, the acts witnessed, will have large influence upon 
the future of our boys and girls. 

Why Knowledge of the Subconscious Is Needed 

A knowledge of the relation of the subconscious to 
consciousness and behavior is of great importance in 
recognizing adolescent defects. Teachers are often 
puzzled by behavior that arises in a complex of im- 
pulses subconsciously developed. Edith, who has been 
your most attentive pupil, comes to class with an en- 
tirely different attitude, is restless, whispers to the 
girls near her and seriously disturbs the class. Lucile 
suddenly develops a sulky and insolent manner very 
unlike that of her usual self. Robert has been a leader 
in working up a class pageant in which he has an im- 
portant part, but he is the only one who is absent on 
the day it is given. Perhaps we cannot discover the 
causes for these exasperating variations in behavior, 
but it is probable that some unusual nervous experi- 
ence, the nature of which may not be clear even to the 
pupil himself, is responsible for the unusual conduct. 
If we know nothing of the delicate nervous balance 
of early adolescence and the roots of possible disorder 

69 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

that may be deep in the subconscious life we are likely 
to be annoyed or angry when it is important that we 
be gentle and sympathetic. 

Types of Preventable or Curable Defects 

Various types of mental defects are due in great 
degree to early adolescent neglect or ill treatment. A 
large proportion of insanities are traceable to the con- 
ditions of adolescence, and there are predisposing 
causes in early adolescence for many forms of mental 
defect. It is not possible here to discuss fully the many 
types of early adolescent mental and nervous condi- 
tions, but it will be profitable to consider such as most 
commonly afifect the problem of understanding our 
boys and girls. 

I. Nervousness. — Nervousness, of various types, is 
very characteristic of early adolescence. The relatively 
rapid changes of nervous energy and balance, due to 
the processes of adolescent youth, make an unstable 
nervous equihbrium a natural and normal element in 
this period. It is very important that the entire en- 
vironment, in home, school, church, and community, be 
such as to facilitate harmonious development and nerv- 
. ous balance. Unfortunately there are many elements 
in the social life of to-day which tend rather to facili- 
tate nervousness. In The Girl in Her Teens, Margaret 
Slattery describes a common condition : 

So many of our girls are "nervous." An eighth- 
grade teacher told me recently that she had fifty girls 
in her class, and that according to their mothers forty- 
one of them were *'very nervous." It seemed to her 

70 



ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

a large proportion even for girls in their early teens, 
and she began a quiet study of some of them. One of 
the "very nervous" girls who, her mother thought, 
must be taken out of school for a while, takes both 
piano and violin lessons, attends dancing school, goes 
to parties now and then, and rarely retires before ten 
o'clock. Another *Very nervous" girl takes piano les- 
sons, goes to moving-pioture shows once or twice a 
week, hates milk, can't eat eggs, doesn't care much for 
fruh, and is extremely fond of candy. In each case 
investigated there seemed to be much outside of school 
work which could explain the nervousness. 

3. Defective social attitudes. — There are many so- 
cial attitudes which are not distinctly abnormal, but 
still require readjustment. Uncorrected they may lead 
to decided mental and moral defects. One example is 
excessive shyness. Shyness has been mentioned in a 
previous chapter as a wholesome provision of nature, 
but, like all instinctive tendencies, it may have a harm- 
ful development. An alternation of shyness and bold- 
ness is characteristic of early adolescence, as it is of 
early childhood, and should not be considered abnor- 
mal. But some boys and girls are temperamentally 
of the shut-in type, with an exaggerated feeling of 
inferiority. They are sensitive, easily offended, but 
silently moody rather than openly vindictive. Often 
they seem self -conceited and haughty when they are 
really abnormally diffident. They need to be en- 
couraged to enter into the social life of boys and girls 
of their own age. Plans to introduce them into normal 
and unembarrassing social situations will help them 
greatly. 

71 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

3. Phobias, or chronic fears, such as the fear of 
high places, the fear of cats, etc., often originate in 
some experience of fright in childhood, which may be 
forgotten so far as consciousness is concerned, but re- 
mains as a subconscious stimulus to some unreasoning 
fear. These phobias frequently appear in early adoles- 
cence, especially in girls.^ Frights or shocks in early 
adolescence, particularly those involved in the sex life, 
often entail serious though frequently obscure results. 

4. Obsessions, the emotional reactions to a fixed 
idea, sometimes amounting to a very serious mental 
condition, are clearly related to phobias and shocks 
often having their origin in some obscure event in 
childhood. Whatever their cause they frequently appear 
in early adolescence. A boy or girl brooding over some 
real or fancied misunderstanding may feel that others 
are unfriendly and may even become misanthropic or 
develop delusions of persecution. It should be remem- 
bered, however, that occasional feelings of melancholy 
are normally characteristic of adolescence. 

5. Other early-adolescent defects. — The subcon- 
scious elements of mental life are very active in early 
adolescence, and these have a constant and sometimes 
abnormal effect upon consciousness and behavior. 
Dreams have a decided influence upon the waking life, 
and there may be little distinction between the true 
dream and the daydream, while both may deeply affect 
one's more clearly conscious states. The history of 
early adolescence is marked by many cases of hallucina- 
tions, visions, ecstasies, fits of melancholy, as well as 

^Aioletcence, Hall, Volume I, page 277 f. 

7? 



ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

the more serious types of nervous aberration, neu- 
rasthenia, hysteria, dementia precox, epilepsy, etc. 

Principles of Prevention 

The solution of the problem here suggested is not 
easy, but a few simple principles will help in prevent- 
ing nervous and mental disorders : 

1. Proper guidance in work, study, and play. — 
This is of special importance to the subnormal or 
supranormal boy or girl. A program of study, for 
example, may be well adapted to the normal person but 
may discourage and depress the slower mind, while 
it may constitute a very unbalanced and inadequate 
mental diet for the supranormal or unusually bright 
mind. The precocious boy or girl is quite likely to 
be of a highly nervous temperament and consequently 
involves a distinct problem. 

2. Properly balanced life habits. — Nervous abnor- 
malities of various sorts are encouraged by such factors 
as insufficient or irregular hours of sleep, insufficient or 
improper food, poorly ventilated rooms, and over- 
fatigue. It is said that youthful volunteers, unac- 
customed to the rigors of military service, have fre- 
quently recruited the ranks of the adolescent insane. 
Correct nutrition and habits of exercise contribute 
not only to a well-developed body but also to a normal 
and healthy mind. The ancient idea ''mens sana in 
cor pore sano" (a sound mind in a sound body) is still 
of practical significance. 

3. Sex hygiene. — Contrary to common belief, vi- 
cious sex habits are seldom the cause of mental defects, 

7f 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

but they are likely to accompany and intensify them. 
Such habits are very closely associated with most 
cases of dementia precox. It should be remembered 
that any habit that is inconsistent with one's moral 
ideals, or which tends to generate shame, anxiety, and 
loss of self-respect, reacts harmfully upon the nervous 
system. 

4. Personal friendship. — Perhaps the greatest need 
of this period is for sympathetic friendships with 
older persons. There is a pathetic lack of understand- 
ing which alienates many girls from their mothers and 
boys from their fathers. just when there is the greatest 
need for confidential counsel. 

5. Congenial and quiet surroundings. — Such an 
environment may be the deciding factor in the case of 
a nervous boy or girl between mental health and mental 
breakdown. 

6. Suitable companionships. — Much depends on 
the chums and other friends of similar age with whom 
the adolescent boy or girl associates. In many cases of 
mental abnormalities an unfortunate friendship is a 
seriously complicating factor. It must not be forgotten 
that social companionships are essential to the well- 
developed life. The boy or girl of the shut-in type, 
shy and easily embarrassed, needs the sympathetic aid 
of parent or teacher in developing a normal social life. 

Problems 

1. Discover what unusual fears and obsessions, if 
any, there are in various members of your class. 

2. Study one or more copies of a newspaper for 

74 



ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

records of juvenile crime. What indications can you 
find as to the probable mental condition of the delin- 
quents ? 

3. How large a proportion of your pupils are re- 
tarded one or more years in their school grades, 
judged by the common age for each grade ? 

References for Further Reading 

The Measurement of Intelligence, Terman, Chapter 
VI. 

Mental Pitfalls of Adolescence, Stedman (pam- 
phlet), Publication Number 22 of Massachusetts So- 
ciety for Mental Hygiene. 

Adolescence, Hall, Volume I, Chapters IV and V. 

Mental Conflicts and Misconduct, Healy. 

The Conservation of the Child, Holmes. 



75 



CHAPTER VIII 

WORK AND PLAY ATTITUDES 

The author's grandfather as a boy on his father's 
farm had been pleasantly occupied in some unac- 
customed activity when he looked up at his father and 
asked, ''Is this work?" 

"Yes," answered his father, "that is work." 
"Then I don't want to do it," said the boy, throwing 
down the tools with which he had been engaged. There 
are many who have a similar notion of the relation of 
work to play. Play is desirable and pleasant activity, 
while work is undesirable and unpleasant. But this, 
like many definitions, is too simple. It is not easy to 
distinguish clearly between work and play. We may 
conceive of a series of activities arranged according 
to their pleasurableness, somewhat as in Figure 2, 
but this is really a classification of the various atti- 
tudes toward activities rather than the activities them- 
selves. A boy digs a hole in the ground as a matter 
of play. He puts forth considerable effort, but it is 
pleasurable effort. We call it play. His father comes 
out with his spade to dig a hole and plant a tree. He 
would really prefer to play golf, but it is a fine morn- 
ing, he is in good health and spirits, and he enjoys the 
vigorous exercise. This is pleasurable work. At the 
end of a hard day, fatigued and nerve- weary, he faces 
a similar necessary task in a quite different way. Now 

76 




17 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

it is relatively unpleasant work. Under still more 
unpleasant circumstances this essential task might be 
actual drudgery. Play is often defined as activity 
performed because of one's satisfaction in the activity 
itself, and work as activity having its incentive in somej 
reward beyond itself. Although play is always pleasur- 
ably affected by the activity itself, the distinction is 
difficult to maintain. The spirit of play is active in 
much of what we call work, and the work motive 
is dominant in many things we call play. The follow- 
ing principles apply not only to early adolescence but 
also to other stages of development. 

Principles of Play 

1. Play is not mere frivolity. It may have elements 
of pure "fooling" in it, but in general play is a serious 
activity. Adult play seldom originates in a frivolous 
spirit, although its chief value is in relaxation. The 
play of childhood is a thoroughly serious occupation. 

2. Play is essentially whole-hearted effort. Because 
a child puts himself so thoroughly into this most satis- 
fying type of activity play has a decided educational 
value. Lessons learned through play are likely to be 
well learned. 

3. Boys and girls need a considerable amount of pure 
play — free from any large degree of the work motive. 

4. Boys and girls need to develop a tendency to do 
actual work for worthy ulterior ends, even though it 
involves a considerable degree of unpleasant effort. 

5. Boys and girls should, so far as possible, develop 
the play attitude toward their work. 

78 



WORK AND PLAY ATTITUDES 

It is a very important part of the work of a teacher 
to encourage the wholesome development of all the 
foregoing tendencies. We must first realize the natural 
craving and the vital need for play. 

Play in Early Adolescence 

The expression of the play impulse in early adoles- 
cence is different from the expression in childhood. 
In early childhood play very largely consists of activity 
for the pure joy of activity, and with no reference to 
an end to be attained. The child is self -centered, and his 
play, even when he has playmates, is essentially soli- 
tary. He enjoys the presence of other children, but he 
plays with toys that he considers, at least temporarily, 
his own. There is little cooperation in the undirected 
play of httle children, and little interest in rivalry. 
They play games not to win over one another, but for 
pure self-expression. 

In middle atid later childhood rivalry develops, and 
also an interest in the end to be realized in play. Now 
children run races to win. They are still distinctly self- 
centered, as anyone who attempts to regulate their play 
will discover. The ten-year-old boy is a grand-stand 
player. He wishes to outdo others for his own glory. 
But in early adolescence a new social spirit is awaken- 
ing. There are new loyalties developing, and the boys 
and girls are playing athletic games for the idealized 
honor of a team or a class or a school. Team play, 
sacrifice hits, enthusiasm for idealized groups, are be- 
coming dominant elements in play. 

79 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

Physical Play 

A large part of the play of early adolescence is 
physical play. Boys and girls of this age, with their 
rapid development of muscle tissue and nervous 
energy, are subject to a muscle hunger or a muscle 
intoxication that greatly affects their play. They 
enjoy the free exercise of the large muscles and are 
beginning to acquire facility in the finer muscular co- 
ordination. They delight in athletics, in walking, run- 
ning, rowing, swimming, and dancing, and in romping 
and horseplay. Unlike children they delight in putting 
the last ounce of energy into a game. They need sym- 
pathetic guidance and a wholesome outlet for the nerv- 
ous energy that must be released in some sort of 
physical activity. We cannot solve the play problem 
by a policy of restriction, enforcing a program of "all 
work and no play." One of the serious problems for 
the American state and church is the development of 
a wholesome program of play. Perhaps the most seri- 
ous element in this problem is the development in older 
persons of an intelligently sympathetic attitude toward 
the play of our boys and girls. The frequently mis- 
chievous activities of adolescent boys and girls may be 
turned into wholesome channels through a well-con- 
sidered program of sports and recreations. 

Moral value of play. — One of the chief values of 
well-regulated play is its moral influence. The battle 
of Waterloo is said to have been won on the cricket 
fields of England. If so, it was through the develop- 
ment of the social and moral attitudes and habits 

80 



WORK AND PLAY ATTITUDES 

which made the EngUsh officers the men they were. 
The rough games of adolescence have done much to 
develop the moral values of fair play, good sportsman- 
ship, and loyalty to group ideals. They need super- 
vision and guidance, but with these they may be among 
the chief forces for moral education. 

Games for girls. — Much has been written about the 
moral value of sports for boys. It is fortunate that 
their value for girls is gaining the attention of the 
world of education. Group games are of great im- 
portance to the early adolescent girl. "If a girl does 
not become a good sport before she is fourteen she 
never will, but will be condemned to premature young 
ladyhood."^ 

The Play Program 
John L. Alexander has reported the responses of 
1 80 pastors and church workers to a series of ques- 
tions on the social and intellectual life of adolescents.^ 
In the replies to the question ''What provision is your 
church making for the social and intellectual life 
of boys and girls in setting apart room for such ac- 
tivities as games, debates, club and reading purposes ?" 
he finds that the majority express a willingness to 
"allow" the boys and girls to use certain rooms, but 
that there are few plans to initiate or direct the use 
of such rooms. It is clearly one of the most important A 
duties of the church and the church school to provide 
and properly supervise a recreational program for our 
boys and girls. 

^Play in Education, Lee, page 392 f. 

^The Sunday School and the Teena, Alexander, Chapter XIII. 

81 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

Adapting a program to social needs. — What an 
adequate play program includes and what the average 
teacher can do to promote wholesome recreation are 
problems too comprehensive for discussion here. 
Teachers should be familiar with one or more books 
on the subject, several of which are listed at the end 
of this chapter. It should be said, however, that the 
program should be planned with the social situation 
of a group definitely in mind. The rural group, for 
example, will need a different program from that of 
the city. The following observations were made by a 
committee on recreation and rural health which re- 
ported to the Bureau of Education : 

*'(a) Farm boys and girls do not develop sym- 
metrically. 

**(&) The work of the farm seems to overdevelop 
the major or fundamental muscles, while the finer or 
accessory muscles are neglected." 

This being true, it is evident that the play program 
for rural boys and girls should be planned to correct 
this unbalanced development. There may be other 
maladjustments in city boys and g^rls which may also 
be corrected through a play program. The value of a 
thorough program of physical training and play is 
indicated in the following report by a play expert : 

Ipswich is a town of eight thousand inhabitants. It 
has no playgrounds, no physical training in its schools. 
It has a high-school athletic field, many vacant lots, and 
the open country was in sight. On a test given to all 
boys in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades it 
was found that the average performance of the thou- 

82 



WORK AND PLAY ATTITUDES 

sands of boys in the same grades in the schools in the 
Borough of Manhattan, New York City, exceeded that 
of the Ipswich boys : 

In the standing broad jump by 25 per cent 

In the running 60 yards by 70 j>er cent 

And in chinning the horizontal bar they did five times 
as many. 

With all the vacant lots and open country the 
Ipswich boys were found to be : 

6 per cent in the athletic field; 
12 per cent in the vacant lots; 
20 per cent in the home yards; and 
62 per cent on the streets. 

Of all the girls observed, 75 per cent were on the 
streets.^ 

The Play Spirit in Work 

"The greater part of life," says Seashore, "is neither 
wholly play nor wholly work." There are many 
instances in which useful tasks are done in the whole- 
hearted, happy spirit of play, and there are other cases 
of so-called play which are downright drudgery. 
Probably the most useful creative work of man is 
done in the mood of play. It is joyful self-expres- 
sion, into which one throws his whole soul. One 
who does not enjoy his work cannot fully enjoy his 
play. To develop in boys and g^rls a love of work, 
an interest that glorifies toil with the play spirit, is one 
of the fine privileges of a true teacher. "Engineering 
is not work to me," says a distinguished engineer. "It 
is my life, my way of expressing myself. I spend 

George W. Ehler, former Director of Physical Edacation, University of 
Wisconsin, in the Kansas Teacher, March, 1917. 

83 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

twelve or fourteen hours a day at engineering. I spend 
half an hour a day at work — reading things or doing 
things that I feel I must read and do, but which 
themselves are disagreeable or uninteresting." Early- 
adolescent boys and girls are rapidly forming their 
life habits. Both work and play are essential to them. 
Their training in these crucial years may largely de- 
termine whether they will be frivolous loafers, or 
"grinds," or wholesomely balanced young people who 
enjoy both work and play and still have the moral 
stamina to face with determination a disagreeable task. 
To develop this wholesome attitude toward work 
and play we must stimulate worthy ideals in play and 
worthy motives in work. If we ourselves find pleasure 
in our work our suggestible pupils will be stimulated 
to a Hke interest and may consciously or unconsciously 
imitate our attitudes. And if we so plan their work 
as to bring into play their curiosity, their native enjoy- 
ment of a variety of sense experiences, their self -re- 
garding impulses, such as emulation, and especially 
their altruistic impulses, their work may become a 
pleasure. The chief factor will very likely be the con- 
tagion of your own joy in service. 

A Balanced Program 

The properly balanced program of work and play for 
early adolescence is a difficult problem, but one worthy 
of thorough study. It is evident to the least observing 
that recreations and amusements are taking a much 
larger proportion of time than formerly. City condi- 
tions are introducing a variety of social problems, not 

84 



WORK AND PLAY ATTITUDES 

the least of which is the complex problem of amuse- 
ments. Since relatively little attention has been given 
to early-adolescent boys and girls in planning public 
amusements, this phase of the life of our young peo- 
ple has been commercialized, often to the harm of our 
boys and girls. Several years ago a study of four 
large high schools showed that a majority of the stu- 
dents spent not more than four evenings a week at 
home.* To say nothing of the often questionable char- 
acter of amusements offered by the commercial inter- 
ests there is a disproportionate amount of time spent 
by early adolescent boys and girls in motion picture 
theaters, amusement parks, and other similar resorts. 

Cooperation. — Churches, schools, and teachers 
should cooperate in a program of recreation. The 
evils of injudicious amusements cannot be cured by a 
^erely negative attitude. We greatly need a positive 
program that shall include both work and play. Work 
that is really useful service and not a mere make- 
believe responds to the growing hunger of adolescence 
tor a part in the activities of the world of real life. 
And play is a wholesome release for the pent-up 
energies of youth and a means of positive develop- 
ment for the attitudes and activities involved in moral 
and social behavior. 

A playground specialist has recommended the fol- 
lowing apparatus for the recreational activities of early- 
adolescent boys and girls : 

This should include an outdoor gymnasium (the 



*The High-School Age, King, page 173. 

85 



i 
PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

I 
boys with the aid of blacksmith and carpenter can 
provide apparatus for such gymnasium if it is not I 
possible to buy apparatus of regular manufacturers), 
running track, jumping standards, apparatus for vault- 
ing, hurdles, eight-pound shot, baseball and football | 
field, tennis court, bowling green, croquet sets, basket- 
ball court, skating rink, indoor gymnasium, swimming 
pool, homemade boats, rowboats, sailboats, guns, fish- 
ing tackle; workshop; mechanical and electrical toys; 
den or clubhouse ; garden ; pets ; menagerie, vivarium, 
aquarium, nature collections; puppet theater; musical 
instruments; outfit of some sort for painting, modeling, 
carving, or burning ; material for sewing, beadwork, or 
embroidery.^ 

Most valuable suggestions are to be found in the 
handbooks of the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls. 
The insight into the life of boys and girls which has 
guided the development of these organizations will 
be of great value to all teachers of early-adolescent 
boys and girls. 

Problems 

1. Make a list of the games preferred by your 
pupils. How large a proportion of them are active 
games ? 

2. Ask your pupils to make a chart showing the way 
they spend their time for a week, under these heads: 
sleep, meals, school recitations, study in school hours, 
study out of school hours, parties and similar social 
gatherings, commercial amusements, such as "movies," 
theaters, etc., work in the home, work for pay, clubs 
and other meetings, gymnasium or other organized 
play, free or spontaneous play, practicing music, or 
other art studies. 

^Education by Play and Games, J(^dsod, pages 207(. 

86 



WORK AND PLAY ATTITUDES 

References for Further Reading 

The Sunday School and the Teens, Alexander, Chap- 
ters XV and XIX. 

Seven Ages of Childhood, Cabot, Chapter XL 

Recreation and the Church, Gates. 

The Psychology of Social Reconstruction, Patrick, 
Chapter V. 

Play in Education, Lee. 

Education by Play and Games, Johnson, pages 205 fit. 

The High-School Age, King, Chapter XL 

Leadership of Girls' Activities, Moxcey. 

Good Times for Girls, Moxcey. 

Physical Health and Recreation for Girls, Moxcey. 

Psychology in Daily Life, Seashore, Chapter I. 

Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, pages 216 f. 

School Efficiency, Bennett, Chapter XXL 

How to Teach, Strayer and Norsworthy, Chapter 
IX. 

The Parent and the Child, Cope, page 56. 



87 



CHAPTER IX 

MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS > 

Children are not born moral ; neither are they im- 
moral. According to adult standards they are rela- 
tively nonmoral, but they develop a morality that ' 
grows with their growfh from infancy to age. A con- 
trast of the ruling impulses of childhood with those 
of adult life will show what great adjustments must 
be made during adolescence. An infant is almost al- 
together egoistic. He is self-centered, willful, and un- 
sympathetic. At the beginning his caresses, like those 
of a purring cat, are his pleasurable reactions to the 
comfort of his environment. Experience soon teaches 
him that caresses bring caresses in return, and through- 
out the years of child life there is a more or less con- 
scious bartering of what we term good behavior for 
good will and the satisfaction of childish wants. Child- 
ish sympathy is a slow-growing plant. There are tears 
in plenty, but they are tears of self-pity rather than 
sorrow for the ills of others. As childhood develops, 
the social impulses that lead to sympathy slowly 
awaken; but as a whole childhood is predominantly 
individualistic. A child develops personal rather than 
group rivalries, is jealous of favors shown other chil- 
dren, seeks to be noticed and given attention. Nature 
has made no mistake in giving children this self-seek- 
ing nature. It is adapted to the necessities of depend- 



MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 

ence on the care of older people. But as a child 
attains a greater relative independence, social responsi- 
bilities appear, and so normal development involves a 
developing moral sense. The social responsibilities of 
childhood are chiefly established with reference to 
child groups ; -hence, a quite distinct moral code de- 
velops in childhood. 

Social Attitudes of Adults and Children 

In adult life, however, there is a much greater degree 
of personal independence and power, with a consequent 
increase in responsibility. The moral world is greater 
and more complex than in childhood. There is a wide 
variety of social contacts and an increasingly com- 
plicated ethical code. Thus, while the attitudes of 
individualism, which arise from the most primitive 
of instincts, never disappear, they give way in great 
degree, in the normal personality, to those instinctive 
attitudes and impulses which we call social. The nor- 
mal relationships of the social and individualistic im- 
pulses in the various stages of development may be 
represented by Figure 3. 

In early adolescence the social impulses are normally 
beginning to dominate the personality. It is a period 
of a new appreciation of social relationships. The 
dominance of the instinct of sex attraction may be 
overestimated, but it has a deep influence upon human 
development from early adolescence on. The con- 
sciousness of relation to social groups has been develop- 
ing before adolescence begins, but now it becomes more 
distinct, while it involves a larger number of group 

89 




90 



MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIOxNSHIPS 

relationships. Loyalties to a school, a club, or a base- 
ball team become prominent. It now becomes possible 
to organize group games that were unsatisfactory in 
earlier periods. Personal attachments become deeper 
and more permanent than before. 

Relation to Older Persons 

In early adolescence there is a growing interest in 
the world of adult society. Boys and girls are look- 
ing forward eagerly to becoming men and women. 
Hitherto they have ''played" at being grown-ups ; now 
they begin actually to try to assume the attitudes of 
adults. A girl of thirteen wrote in her diary: **My 
new summer coat and skirt are awfully becoming, 
everyone says. Father says, too: *I say, you'll be a 
young lady ! But don't grow up too quickly !' I can't 
make out why he said that; I should like to be quite 
grown up ; but it will be a long time yet." 

Not Children. — This relatively new interest in adult 
life and this impatience with what seem the slow 
processes of growing into that desired estate should 
be appreciated by every teacher. Every stage of de- 
velopment from puberty on is magnified in the eyes of 
the boys and girls themselves. A year's difference in 
age means little to the adult ; it means much to a four- 
teen-year-old boy or girl. From the standpoint of 
fourteen, sixteen is a quite grown-up age, while the 
years of the twenties represent a distant and advanced 
age. Still, the boy of fourteen may feel that he belongs 
with an older group and is likely to chafe at any under- 
estimation of his years and powers. Teachers should 

91 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

sympathize with these adolescent notions and should 
correspondingly modify their attitudes toward boys 
and girls of different ages. Do not refer to adolescent 
boys and girls as children even in the circle of the 
teachers* meeting or workers' conference; never chal- 
lenge their resentment by treating them as children. 

Companionship with adults. — The growing adoles- 
cent interest in adult life has another pedagogical 
corollary. There should be a closer and freer com- 
panionship between these young people and adults. In 
one respect the ancient Spartans may teach us a les- 
son. They had a sort of big-brother plan, according 
to which a boy became the friend and companion of an 
older man. The Roman father improved on this by 
himself becoming the close companion of his boy. Not 
only parents but other adults should get acquainted 
with the adolescent boys and girls. They are in a 
period of hero worship and chums and personal ad- 
mirations. They are often ardently devoted to favorite 
teachers. One girl, after a visit with an idolized 
former teacher, wrote: *T shall simply live upon this 
memory, and the only thing I want in life is that I 
may see her once more."^ To be sure, many adoles- 
cent "crushes" are unwholesome, but the influence of 
sensible and sympathetic older people is generally help- 
ful. 

Gangs and Bunches 

The social interest which has been gradually increas- 
ing during later childhood expresses itself in the im- 



»J. Yaung Oirl's Diary, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul, page 280. 

92 



MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 

puls€ to group in a variety of organizations — informal 
"gangs" of boys or "bunches" of girls, secret clubs, or 
more formal organizations. This tendency reaches its 
height in early adolescence. A gang of boys, unregu- 
lated and under improper influences, may be a terror 
to a neighborhood ; but in their grouping together they 
are following the call of a deep instinctive impulse. 
The problem of the gang is no easy one to solve, but 
it cannot be solved by a mere coercive attempt to break 
up the gang. With sympathetic interest in the boys you 
may succeed in directing the energies of a given group 
into more wholesome channels. 

Group loyalty. — The gang problem involves the 
factors of leadership and loyalty. You cannot appoint 
leaders from the outside; they develop in the social 
environment within the group. The chief strategy of 
winning a gang for higher ideals and purposes is to 
win the leader or leaders. The loyalty of the boys 
to their group and its leadership can thus be con- 
served for the higher aims that may be suggested to 
these natural leaders. 

Girls* clubs. — The spontaneous organizations of 
girls are not so conspicuous as those of boys, largely 
because they are usually somewhat more restricted; 
but there is a similarly strong tendency for girls to 
form more or less organized groups. Girls form clubs 
for all sorts of purposes, having probably as wide a 
variety of organization aims as boys. Such organiza- 
tions can readily be formed about the influencing per- 
sonality of an admired adult leader. 

An enviable opportunity. — To direct the group im- 
93 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

pulses of boys and girls into wholesome channels and 
use them in the interest of our educational aims is a 
task for a skillful and sympathetic worker who can j 
influence the leadership of the group or even become 
personally identified with the group. Such a leader 
must have the unusual power to be one in an adolescent 
group without condescension or a sense of being an 
outsider. If you have good sense and patience and a 
real interest in the group you may perhaps be 
''adopted," as some white men have been adopted by 
Indian tribes. 

Mixed Moral Codes 

With a background of child morals and a new inter- 
est in a variety of social relationships it is inevitable 
that there is often an illogical mixture of ethical atti- 
tudes. A girl of fourteen shows a womanliness of 
sympathy and understanding which encourages her 
teacher, and then is blamed for some childish impulse 
of selfishness. The new social appreciation should be 
cultivated, the egoistic impulse should be discouraged ; 
but the girl is nervously unstable and sensitive tb criti- 
cism, and a delicately sympathetic touch is the needed 
and difficult treatment. It is a splendid triumph for 
the teacher to win the confidence and loyalty of one 
of these early-adolescent boys or girls. 

Contending impulses. — The frequent oppositions of 
adolescent characteristics which have been discussed in 
Chapter V appear in various social attitudes. Adoles- 
cence sees a distinct development of the altruistic spirit 
essential to a worthy morality. Helpfulness, social 

94 



MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 

loyalty, service to the world, become ruling ideals in 
the idealistic years of adolescence. But along- 
side the altruism of early adolescence are a 
new consciousness of self, rising self-evaluation, 
and the impulses of self-interest. It is char- 
acteristic of this often paradoxical period that 
a boy may seem self -centered almost to heartlessness 
and still may at times display a loyal devotion to his 
chum or to his family or other social group. Adoles- 
cence is a period of rather free impulsiveness that may 
at one time be self -centered and at another time sym- 
pathetic. 

The Desire for Solitude and for Society 

The alternations and contradictions of joy and 
melancholy have already been discussed. Related to 
these moods, perhaps, is the desire for solitude which 
often alternates with the wish to be in the social group. 
The desire for solitude, like the feeling of shyness, is 
not a true nonsocial tendency. It may arise in a reac- 
tion to some social situation or it may come from the 
social impulse that led the boy Wordsworth to desert 
his fellow revelers and commune with the living pres- 
ence of nature. We find this desire in the Hfe of 
Jesus, but it responded to a social tendency to com- 
munion with Him whom Jesus called Father. 

The Desire for Approbation 

The desire for approbation shows itself in all sorts 
of wholesome and unwholesome ways. It leads to 
industry and worthy ambition and also to false social 

95 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY AIX)LESCENCE 

evaluations and dishonest means of gaining attention. 
It differs from the childish "showing off" in that it 
has a different social background. It is not mere 
egoism, but the desire to adjust one's self with advan- 
tage to a social environment. Because of the feeling 
of being under the observation of his group the ado- 
lescent boy will throw his energy into the working of 
an algebra problem or the winning of a basketball 
game. The same instinctive desire for approbation 
may lead to deep humiliation and mental distress. 
Thus, a farmer's daughter writes that during her early 
adolescence she suffered an exaggerated sense of 
shame. She was ashamed of living in the country, 
of riding to school in a buggy, and of the out-of -fash- 
ion clothing of her parents. 

Acute Conscientiousness 

The conscience of adolescence is a friendly monitor 
and also an inquisitorial torment. It is often a 
Pharisaic conscience, legalistic and particular, castigat- 
ing the boy or girl for slight infractions of law or for 
purely imaginary faults. It grows out of the legalism 
of childhood, with its ideal of obedience, under the 
new impulses and moral urgencies of adolescence. 
Many a boy of fourteen or fifteen has a keen sense of 
obligation to keep his word even in trivial matters ; and 
though he is led to break his word, it is with a sense 
of having violated a vow. A young woman writes 
from her recollections of this period : 

Mv attitude became scrupulous. I hated to apologize 
for fear that I might not be telling the truth. My tear 

96 



MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 

of acting a lie or being a hypocrite made my life un- 
bearable at times. I was not very mischievous at 
school and knew my lessons well, so that in order to 
make clear to the teacher that I was not exactly "per- 
fect" I took to telling things about my awful past. 

A Critical Attitude Toward Others 

The conscientiousness above discussed is often 
turned about in a sort of vicarious conscience for 
others. This, joined to a vivid imagination and per- 
sonal sensitiveness, often results in painful misunder- 
standings, suspicions and accusations of others, ^hen 
a girl fell down the stairs with a china pitcher, and 
her mother's first inquiry was if she had broken the 
pitcher, she concluded that her mother thought more 
of the pitcher than of her and was convinced of the 
falsity of this conclusion only after "no little amount of 
petting." Another young woman describes this char- 
acteristic attitude : 

I have always been very conscientious and I think it 
reached its maximum during this early adolescence. I 
imagined I was more abused than anyone else in the 
whole world. And as long as my folks could not 
appreciate me, I wished for all sorts of calamities to 
befall me, just to make them sad and regretful. 

It is clear that a teacher must move carefully among 
the various heterogeneous impulses out of which ado- 
lescent morality must develop. His need is for deep 
sympathy and clear thinking. A word of encourage- 
ment at the right time may be of untold value, while a 
careless criticism may work serious harm. Our sugges- 
tions concerning the moral ideals of our pupils should 

97 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

very seldom be negative. We should seek to direct and 
use an impulse in the interest of an advancing moral 
life rather than to abolish it. We should encourage 
the establishment of new habits to supplant the less 
desirable. The boy who is shy and retiring should 
not be ruthlessly dragged into the group, but his inter- 
ests should be recognized and made the basis for con- 
tacts with the group. The girl who is ashamed of her 
poverty or her unfashionable dress or her plain face 
should be tactfully led to realize her compensating good 
qualities and opportunities and to gain a broader out- 
look and an appreciation of higher values. Frances 
Willard in early adolescence mourned her lack of 
beauty, but she was greatly comforted by the sugges- 
tion that she resembled a grandfather who was very 
"noble looking," and by the encouragement of her 
brother, who said, "Never mind, Frank, if you are not 
the handsomest girl in school you are the smartest." 
Out of these complex impulses, with many others, 
develops the more settled, better reasoned, more con- 
sistent morality of later years. This is a period of 
moral dangers, and one in which well-trained and sym- 
pathetic teachers may be of untold value to the de- 
veloping life. Without moral guidance boys and girls 
may drift into careless habits, vice, or crime. 

Problems 

1. Recall and describe the various spontaneous clubs 
or other organizations to which you belonged in early 
adolescence. 

2. What differences can you discover between the 

98 



MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 

moral code of a boy of ten and that of a man of thirty^ 
How do they differ regarding property rights? honesty, 
loyalty to social groups, etc.? 

3. What woman of your acquaintance has most de- 
finitely the confidence of young girls? Why do they 
make her a confidante ? 

References for Further Reading 
The Boy and the Sunday School, Alexander. 
Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapters VI and 

The Boy Problem, Forbush. 
Training the Girl, McKeever. 
Training the Boy, McKeever. 
Education in Religion and Morals, Coe. 



99 



CHAPTER X 

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF EARLY ADOLES- 
CENCE 

We have a twofold interest in the adolescent reli- 
gious life. We are concerned with its relation to the 
religion of later life and also with its value to the boy 
or girl of to-day. While its value as a preparation is 
important, our chief concern should be for religion as 
adapted to the present needs of adolescence. We may 
accept the principle that the best adaptation of boy or 
girl life to the needs of its present environment is the 
best preparation for a later stage of development. It 
is likewise true that the training of childhood for its 
own needs is the best preparation for adolescence. In 
the swirl of adolescent impulses the normal progress 
toward the desirable harmony of adult life very largely 
depends on the habits and ideals that have been de- 
veloped throughout childhood. 

The Complex Problem of Religious Training 

The problem of religious guidance for this period is 
a very complicated one. Religion is always a complex 
of instincts and emotions, perhaps involving, in its full 
development, a sublimation and complication of all 
these fundamental human tendencies, relatively un- 
organized and bewilderingly complicated. Adolescent 
religion, therefore, being a union of these two systems 

100 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

of complexes, cannot be a simple problem. The 
teacher of early-adolescent boys or girls must study 
them thoroughly, understand them as much as possible, 
and have faith that whatever of good training they 
have had in childhood will have its effect in carrying 
them safely through the adolescent crisis. 

Relatively Regular Development 

Despite the complication above described there may 
be a relatively regular development of adolescent reli- 
gious life, or "growth without definite transitions," 
to use Starbuck's expression. This most desirable type 
of development depends in general on careful guidance 
through all the periods of childhood and adolescence. 
Boys and girls thus safeguarded may in a great degree 
avoid the sense of alienation and self-condemnation 
which makes adolescence for so many a period of tor- 
ment, inner struggle, and painfully achieved readjust- 
ment, and may still develop as high loyalties and keen 
enthusiasms as those whose experience is more cata- 
clysmic. From his extensive study of religion in ado- 
lescence Starbuck drew the following conditioning 
factors of this gradual development: 

I. Religious surroundings in childhood. — A regu- 
lar religious development can hardly be expected unless 
there has been a wholesome religious environment in 
early life. There are many persons who cannot recall 
any marked feeling of alienation from God and his 
kingdom of righteousness. Instead of an experience 
of alienation and restoration they have felt a gradual 
widening and deepening of religious concepts and 

lOI 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

ideals and a gradual modification of impulses into the 
more mature reactions. 

2. A reasonable freedom from dogmas that chil- 
dren are incapable of assimilating. — Early adoles- 
cence resembles childhood in being relatively uninter- 
ested in the intellectual doctrines of religion. While 
these boys and girls have definite religious beliefs, 
they still have to do largely with the more objective 
facts in theological and other doctrines rather than the 
philosophic and highly mystical beliefs that engage the 
interest of later periods. This being true, there are 
many elements in religious doctrine which cannot be 
apprehended at this period. The only value in teach- 
ing such doctrines at this time lies in the acquisition 
and retention in memory of the verbal forms which may 
later become significant to religion. Catechetical in- 
struction in the doctrines of the church is quite com- 
monly given in early adolescence. Part of this can 
function as religious education, but another and per- 
haps greater part is not religious education at all, be- 
cause its religious significance is not appreciated at this 
stage of development. And the too-early emphasis 
upon theological doctrines may have an unwholesome 
effect in creating a distaste for religious thinking. 

3. The needs of the child carefully met at every 
point in his development. — Here is the responsibility 
upon parents and teachers throughout the period of 
development. Ours is a delicate task. Early adoles- 
cence is beginning to revolt against authority and 
dogmatism. Tactful, sympathetic suggestion, rather 
than dogmatic instruction, must be our method. A 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

concrete illustration of the most wholesome treatment 
of adolescence is thus reported by Professor Starbuck : 

A minister of the writer's acquaintance, who is a 
wise teacher and parent, learned indirectly that his son 
was beginning to inquire into the things he had been 
taught and had even asked for reasons why he should 
believe in the existence of God. Instead of treating 
the slumbering doubt as an offense against religion and 
fearing that the boy was on the downward road he 
awaited his opportunity to help him through his diffi- 
culties. He described the incident in this way: "It 
was in the evening. We walked together, chatting in 
most familiar fashion. I took him by the hand and, 
after a little pause in the conversation, I said sub- 
stantially, **I heard something good about you the 
other day — something that showed that you are grow- 
ing toward manhood." Of course, he wanted to know 
what I had heard, and I told him. I told him that chil- 
dren get most of their first ideas from their parents, 
just as the little robins get their food from their par- 
ents, but that as they grow they want to know some 
reason for their opinions; that I was glad to have 
him ask for reasons for believing that there is a God ; 
that this question of his made my heart leap with glad- 
ness as I thought of the time when we would sit in 
my study as companions in thought and talk over great 
things. The father adds, "The boy is a Christian man 
at this writing, preparing a graduating thesis on Chris- 
tian ethics." 

4. A certain mixture of faith and doubt. — A cer- 
tain degree of doubt normally indicates a development 
out of childish credulity to the more reasoned faith 
of adult life. In early adolescence there is still a large 
element ol the child type of faith, while doubt be- 

103 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

comes more prominent in middle and later adolescence. 
With proper guidance there need be, in most cases, 
no epochal shock of despairing doubt to necessitate a 
definite crisis experience. 

The Conversion Crisis 

Although the relatively regular development above 
discussed is undoubtedly the most desirable type, some 
sort of crisis experience in adolescence is perfectly 
normal. There are many forces to disturb regular 
development. There are variations in physical and 
mental growth which may combine with elements in 
environment to develop a crisis situation. 

When conversion occurs. — Conversion in the sense 
of abrupt change or radical break with the past, if it 
occurs at all, occurs normally in adolescence. It rarely 
occurs before twelve years of age or after twenty- 
five. The normal center for this phenomenon seems 
to be in middle adolescence, but there are many cases 
between twelve and fifteen. The curves in Figure 4, 
based on Starbuck's extensive data, indicate a con- 
siderable proportion of conversions in early adoles- 
cence, but a much greater proportion in middle adoles- 
cence, with a considerable number early in the period 
of later adolescence. 

The divided self. — What happens in the typical con- 
version experience is well discussed by WilHam James, 
who pictures the preconversion state as one approaches 
the crisis as a division of the self. While the con- 
version experience is not of itself abnormal it may 
be better understood by a reference to the psychology 

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105 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

of relatively unusual mental states. Every normal per- 
sonality has a variety of centers, which may be per- 
fectly consistent with one another. While our per- 
sonality is consciously centered in one point, we may 
be able easily to recenter it in another point. For ex- 
ample, you are a member of a teacher-training class. 
While in this class you are a very different personality 
from what you will be next Saturday as a spectator 
at a baseball game. You recognize a certain unity in 
your personality in these two situations and also a 
diversity. At Saturday's game you may shout and 
cheer enthusiastically; here it would be impossible to 
shout in any such manner. This normal variation of 
personaHty may be illustrated by Figure 5a. Here is 
a unitary personality, to be sure, but with two quite 
different centers : In a sense you are two persons — a 
student and a baseball enthusiast; but there is such a 
close relationship between the two personality centers 
that they are harmonious. As a student you are con- 
scious of the personaHty organized about the baseball 
center. In this sense every personality is a complex. 
Every distinct interest forms a more or less organized 
group of attitudes and ideals and feelings about a 
center. 

Abnormal dual personality. — In abnormal states, 
with an intervening series of variations, there may be 
such a separation of the personality-centers above de- 
scribed that one can with difficulty pass from one center 
to another or not at all. The latter extreme may be 
pictured as in Figure 5b, which represents a distinct 
case of double or alternating personality, the person 

106 





107 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

while in state ''a" being entirely unconscious of state 
"b." This is the Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde type of 
mental abnormality. 

Inner strain. — This matter of varying centers of 
personality is discussed thus at length to illustrate the 
fundamental nature of the preconversion state. In 
adolescent boys and girls there develops normally a 
sense of sin, of some degree of moral delinquency. 
Thus one comes to have a certain degree of inner strain 
between those moral ideals which form one center or 
core of personality and the contrary impulses that con- 
stitute another personality center. This inner strain, 
which Paul describes in Rom. 7. 15-21, may involve a 
sense of estrangement and inconsistency of behavior 
so slight that the personality may be easily harmonized 
by the union of the centers representing ideals and 
behavior, so that there is no distinct crisis experience. 
This type of experience, illustrated in Figure 6a, may 
be found in the cases of gradual development here- 
tofore described. A wider variance between moral 
and religious ideals and behavior, illustrated in Figure 
6b, may necessitate a distinct conversion crisis, while 
such a variation as that shown in Figure 6c may involve 
an extremely acute sense of inner division and call for 
a very painful crisis experience. 

Development types in early adolescence. — Of 
these types of religious development that shown in 
Figure 6a is a very frequent form in early adolescence. 
Occasionally the type indicated by Figure 6b appears. 
The type of Figure 6c is rare until middle adolescence 
or later. 

108 




109 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 



Evangelism for Early Adolescence 

The foregoing discussion of adolescent religious de- 
velopment seems to indicate that the best type of 
evangelism for this period is the religious teaching and 
influence which will contribute to steady growth. It 
is not necessary to awaken the conscience of this period 
by the powerful stimulation of evangelistic campaigns. 
In fact, the excitement of such campaigns and their 
appeal to primitive emotions may be distinctly harm- 
ful to boys and girls. They need gentler methods ; but, 
far more than methods, they need sympathy and 
friendly counsel. 

While we are no longer satisfied with the idea that 
children are born outside the kingdom of God, we have 
not fully recognized the implications of the more 
Christian teaching that ''to such belongeth the kingdom 
of heaven." The chief evangeHstic work of the church 
is in guiding the steps of the inexperienced boys and 
girls from one stage of religious experience to an- 
other. In early adolescence we wish our boys and 
girls to become responsible members of the church, 
and we too often set before them a life decision that 
suggests rejection of the Christian life almost as 
strongly as its acceptance. Sometimes we give them 
such conceptions of Christian experience, adult rather 
than adolescent, that they are discouraged or else lose 
interest in religion. Boys and girls in this period are 
frequently puzzled and concerned about religious prob- 
lems that are generally unknown to either childhood 
or adulthood. 'T do wish I could know whether I'm 

no 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

good or naughty," said one fourteen-year-old girl. 
This is an encouraging evidence of a new conception of 
goodness, but it indicates also the peculiar problems 
these inexperienced young people are facing. 

Graded lessons and evangelism. — In this connec- 
tion something should be said of the value of graded 
lessons as an evangelistic agency. The aim of graded 
lessons is greater efficiency in the development at each 
stage of the appropriate religious experience. It is 
fundamentally important that every teacher have an 
evangelistic conception of his work. His task is not 
merely that of teaching the content of a textbook; it 
is developing the religious and moral nature of the 
pupils. Graded lessons are designed by trained Chris- 
tian educators as a means to this development. There- 
fore, the evangelistic impulse should be felt not merely 
in special seasons of religious emphasis, but also in the 
weekly and daily faithfulness with which boys and 
girls are trained in and for the kingdom of God. 

Conceptions of God 

Mental and religious development from childhood 
to adult life involves changing conceptions of God. 
In childhood God is objectified, usually as a more 
powerful man, somewhere in space. Probably the 
form of this visual picture is largely determined by the 
symbols of God and heaven which our teachings have 
contakied, but naturally a child tends to localize God 
and visualize him. Throughout adolescence religion 
is becoming more and more internalized and spiritual- 
ized, but in early adolescence the childish conception of 

III 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

relation to a God in visible form is still largely domi- 
nant. Without denying the childish conceptions that 
remain the teacher should seek to develop a more 
spiritual conception, a broader, more universal con- 
ception of God, and to emphasize the attitudes toward 
him involved in moral conduct. 

Keeping the boys and girls in mind. — It is well to 
remember the keen, questioning minds of our boys and 
girls in planning our forms of worship. When we 
speak of God as looking down upon us, when we 
appeal to him to come to us, to be with us in our 
worship, the figurative language may satisfy us; but 
the thirteen-year-old boy or girl may wonder where 
we think God is and whether he had to be invited to 
come to the place where we worship him. And when 
we picture God as constantly watching to see when 
we do wrong, or as being satisfied only with the blood 
of retribution, we are injecting into tender hearts that 
which may alienate them from the really loving, sym- 
pathizing, and companionable Father. 

Morality and Service 

Boys and girls in early adolescence appear to be 
relatively little concerned with the intellectual phases 
of religion. They are not yet ready to formulate a 
working philosophy of religion. They are little inter- 
ested in doctrines and creeds. But they are interested 
in the practical applications of religion. They are 
opening their eyes to the possibilities of a social world, 
and religious problems are for them largely problems 
of conduct. They still hold the conception of God as 

112 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

a king whose will is law; but the moral nature of 
divine law is becoming felt. This is a providential 
time for presenting the moral and social phases of the 
Christian life. A program of social helpfulness, de- 
veloping the habits of feeling and responsibility for 
others and encouraging worthy social attitudes and 
ideals, is of the highest value. Among the valuable 
means to this development should be mentioned the 
activities fostered by the organizations of Boy Scouts 
and Camp Fire Girls. These organizations may be 
profitably utilized by the Intermediate Department, and 
their judiciously chosen activities may thus be linked 
up with the church school. 

Problems 

1. Recall your own experience in early adolescence 
as far as possible. What ideas of God do you recall? 
How did your religious life differ from that of to-day ? 
Was your development of the crisis type or a more 
gradual development? 

2. Study a group of early adolescents. In what 
parts of the Bible are they most interested? What 
books or stories do they read ? What sort of personali- 
ties most appeal to them? 

3. Examine the hymnbook which you use. How 
many of its hymns appeal to the interests and ideals 
of intermediates? 

References for Further Reading 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapter VIII. 

A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe, Chap- 
ters XVI and XXIII. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter 
XIII. 

113 



PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

How to Teach Religion, Betts, Chapters V and VL 
The Sunday School and the Teens, Alexander, Chap- 
ters I to IV. ^ 
The Psychology of Religion, Starbuck. 
The Teacher's Study of the Life of Christ, Barclay, 
Lesson VIIL 
Life in the Making, Barclay and others, Chapter XIL 
Varieties of Religious Experience, James. 



"4 



